So here’s the thing.  Grace sends out people on our summer short-term trips, and they come back different.  Changed.  Transformed.  Whatever you want to call it.  They are different.  Here’s an example.  Our middle school worship director.  Craig Boyer.  Only it’s not him anymore, it’s someone different.  Changed.  Listen to his own words:

“Sitting in my favorite starbucks, corner table, surrounded by people engrossed in conversation.  Quad skinny vanilla latte warming my soul, music over the loud speakers are shaded out by the music in my ears; explosions in the sky.  My macbook is powered up… every other moment I will look around and observe… my thoughts go back to where God has crushed me one again: Japan.  

When will people ever understand what God is doing there?  How can I get them to understand, or even appreciate to a higher level how God is moving through this church and ministry in Kurume.

This was my 5th trip to Japan… and after what took place, it will never be my last.  I have more fire in my soul for Japan then ever before.

In the US, roads are bigger here, dishwashers are bigger here, they have refills here, washer machines hold more than 4 pairs of shorts and 4 t-shirts, servings are bigger, cars are bigger, hallways are bigger, parking spaces are bigger, cell phones are however bigger in Japan, stores are bigger here, shopping carts are MUCH bigger here, microwaves are common here, tables are bigger here, restaurants are bigger here…

bigger does not always mean better…

I miss everything about it… but mostly, the souls of people that are encased in their own heritage that clutches their neck with a death grip on the ideology of a relationship with the one true living God.  Empty vessels walk the streets and populate trains.  A friendly greeting is typically reciprocated with an awkward glance.  I hate awkward.

But it is what I miss.

I miss a room that is empty one minute, then filled with the curious laughter of Japanese children longing to be held or played with.  I miss the Mom’s engaged in worship.  I miss the Dad’s hanging with their children and walking them to the classroom.  I miss seeing my team.  I miss Brandon and Aprils voice as it would seep through the thin walls… I miss their laughter when they would mess up.  I miss the chaos of the transitons… songs starting and stopping when then shouldn’t.  I miss the high fives from my teammates on successes… I miss the high fives when we mess up and move on.  I miss Taizo and Kim.  I miss the stability of Darlene and Steve.  I miss the stories of the team at moments when they are completely crushed.  Believe it or not… I miss Brandon embarrassing me (sort of).  I love that guy.  I miss watching Mikayla and Baylee gleening from other high schoolers in Japan.  I miss our team lunches.  I miss the volunteers.

I miss the worship. I miss the paint. I miss the smiles. I miss the burps. I miss my bff in Japan, it’s one of my favorite J’s.

What is it about the experience this year that exceeds other’s in the past?  It could have something to do with the Mom who was in tears as she ran up to me asking, “do you remember me from last year?”.  ”Of course I do”, i responded. How could I have forgotten a woman whose story broke the hearts of last years team. She was in the midst of a divorce, marriage falling apart, and a Mom who never set foot in a church because she afraid of offending the gods.  It’s because of BEK and the ministry of the church that her Mom came to the church to see her granddaughter in a program that she now knows who Moses is, and the faith Daniel had the brave heart David had.  Mostly, she knows about a God that loves her.

It could also be how a little boy referred to the program as ‘sugoi’ which means amazing in Japanese.  It could be the visitor off the streets who never set foot in a church before.  She wanted to come and see the americans play with the children. She heard about this through some people affiliated with KCC. It could also be the kids singing, “Jesus is my superhero” using all the motions on their own.  It could be the children retelling the bible stories to their parents.  It could be the children remembering me from last year.  It could be the volunteers. It could be the stronger bond between us and the church. It could have beenthe team prayer at the buddhist temple.

It could be… it is.  It is all of those things and so much more.  The ministry is the important thing… touching them with special dose of love and laughter.  Who knew this would happen… well, God knew.  He just needed willing hearts and the rest He would take care of.  Thank you all for your part in this trip.  Amazing team and an wonderful partner in Kurume Christ Church.  God Bless you all.”

This is a post sent from Andrew Miller, who is one of the trip leaders of our current team in Haiti. You can read all their updates on their trip blog by clicking here.

__________

It’s hard to believe, but we’re nearing the end of our trip! Today is our last day in Chambrun, so we’re hard at work finishing several projects.

Half of our team is building the NVM hospital. Our guys have been up and at work at sunrise each morning, and they’ve made some major progress. By the time we head out, they’ll have laid pipe for all the plumbing and prepared the foundation so future teams can lay concrete. With the help of future teams, NVM hopes to have the hospital finished by December.

The rest of the team has been hard at work as well. Many have been busy painting the NVM school and medical clinic. When we first arrived in Chambrun, these buildings were a dull, concrete gray. Now they are a welcoming white and blue that our team (and the people of Chambrun) are proud of.

The three nurses on our team have been seen hundreds of patients. Haitians from the surrounding area start showing up at the clinic at six in the morning–almost two and a half hours before it opens! Many patients wait for hours in the oppressive heat, so some from our team have brought smiles to those waiting with coloring books, toys, and love. We’ve seen the clinic waiting room transformed from a place of boredom and suffering to a haven of smiles and joy.

There’s some great pictures and stories about all we’ve experienced at www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com.  Make sure you check it out! We’ve had some powerful encounters with God, and these posts and pictures capture them well.

So that’s what we’ve been up to. At our team meeting last night, we summed it up by saying we’ve been doing lots of little things with love. But anything that we’ve done or accomplished comes second to what God’s been doing and accomplishing in us. He’s taken a team of 20 complete strangers and transformed us into what feels like a family. He’s broken our hearts for the people of this country, and none of us will ever be the same.

Most of all, he’s showed us that the kingdom breaks into Earth not through our strength or productivity, but through a community of Christ followers who rely on His strength to love fully in the little things. We’ve learned that no matter how bleak the situation seems (and here in Haiti it can seem very bleak at times) there is hope, because God is at work. He’s working through his body, the church. He’s building hospitals, painting buildings, healing sickness, holding children, transforming hearts, and changing lives.

How great is our God! And what a privilege it is to serve Him! Friends, family, and church back home, let’s keep being faithful to love in the little things. That’s how his kingdom is breaking in, here in Haiti, back home in Indy, and all over the world.

This is a post sent from Andrew Miller, who is one of the trip leaders of our current team in Haiti.

__________

One of the first things Pastor Pierre told our team during orientation is that we would need to be “fat” on this trip – and he wasn’t talking about the massive amount of calories we’d need to consume each day to have energy in this Haiti heat! He was talking about about being spiritually fat: F (flexible) A (available) T (teachable). Two days into our trip were definitely getting fatter. And we’ll have another opportunity to get fatter as we grow in flexibility today.

Today our team will be moving to a different location. Instead of staying with Pastor Pierre at his guesthouse, we’ll be moving to a dormitory in Chambrun. Our team is excited about the move for several reasons. Living in Chambrun itself will enable our team to get to work first thing in the morning while the temperature is still cool. Right now were about half an hour from Chambrun (but half an hour can seem like an eternity if you’re stuck in the back of a pick up truck in a Hatian thunderstorm and traffic jam! You can read all about that and our other Day 2 adventures at www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com)

The other positive to the move is that it will  enable us to share a deeper connection with the people in Chambrun. We’ll have more time to interact with the school children and the people of the community. We’re hoping this will make our ministry here more like Jesus ministry to us. He left the comfort of heaven and moved into our neighborhood, so we’re excited to move into the neighborhood of Chambrun.

The only downside of the move is that we’re not sure how often we’ll have access to an internet connection. We’ll try to keep the blogs updated  as best as we can. If we have internet access updates may be more readily available on Bryan’s blog: www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com. Again, you can read about all of our Day 2 adventures there!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

The Team

Twenty of us departed from Grace Community Church at 3:30 am, and our journey began. Our flights from Indy to Chicago, and Chicago to Miami were really non-eventful, except for the fact that they airport people stole all of Bryan’s Pratt’s Peanut Butter and Nutella…and the fact we got to see the sun rise from an awesome view!

“I see your face in every sunrise. The color of the morning is in your eyes."-Phil Wickham

Our flight from Miami to Haiti was one that I will never forget. As soon as we finally saw our destination out the airplane window we all got excited and couldn’t wait to see what God was going to show us.

God’s eye view of Haiti.

When we finally got to the airport it was complete chaos….well chaos is a bit of an understatement! We “misplaced” two of our members (Steve and Wes–but they found us soon), and had to find 40 checked bags plus half of our carry-ons in a mass of people who were all trying to do the same thing. It was CRAZY!

So once we got through customs we thought we were in the clear… hahaha yah right! We got outside and were greeted by a sea of “Red Hats”. “Red Hats” are people who lost their jobs during the earthquake and swarm the airport in hopes of being able to assist you with your luggage (for payment of course).

Chaos at the airport!

We finally were met by Pastor Pierre and most of our fears ceased to exist. This godly man has a way about him that just spoke of peace and serenity. He guided us through the chaos to the safety of the Nehemiah Vision Ministries Bus. Somehow we got all 40 bags onto the bus, and started on our way to where we would be staying.

We finally make it to the Bus!

Most of us thought the plane rides and exhaustion would be the hardest part of our day. Well, we were wrong. As we drove through Port Au Prince we saw so many things that broke our hearts. We will never forget some of the faces we saw today. The heartache and hopelessness in their eyes was haunting.

The tent cities were everywhere. Few buildings were functional because of the earthquake’s devastation.

When we arrived at Pastor Pierre’s guesthouse we were met with a big surprise. We knew we’d be joining another team of 25 from a church inPennsylvania, but we had no idea Pastor Pierre’s guesthouse normally only accommodates 30. Our team plus there’s made almost 50, so for a while we weren’t sure where some of us would be sleeping.

Fortunately, our fearless leader Chris Shore had a solution: our own IDP camp (Indiana Displaced People Camp) – right on the roof of the building where we’re staying! Our team leapt into action. The 6 girls found rooms and beds inside (despite the crowdedness) and started organizing and preparing meals.  The guys headed up to the roof and started setting up tents, but they had to work fast. It’s the rainy season here in Haiti, and ominous thunderclouds were rolling in over the mountains. The guys finished setting up the third tent just as the rain began to pour.

Our own tent city on the roof of Pastor Pierre’s.

After setting up we enjoyed a modest meal of rice, beans, and tortillas. Our host Pastor Pierre helped set our expectations for food when he welcomed our team, saying, “The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but it is also true that here in Haiti rice and beans will be the same yesterday, today and forever.” He also had a poem for us to keep in mind: “Where he leads, I will follow, what he feeds me, I will swallow.”

Pastor Pierre did a wonderful job welcoming our team. After sharing a few laughs with us and giving us a tentative game plan for the week, he shared his personal testimony and the story of how he started Nehemiah Vision Ministries. It’s an incredible story, and we hope to share more of it here on the blog later this week.

Pastor Pierre sharing his story.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers! We’ll do our best to keep you posted throughout the week!

p.s. Several of our team members will be blogging throughout the week. Today’s post is a combination of their work. You can check out Bryan Pratt’s blog at http://graceinhaiti.wordpress.com for stories and updates. We’ll be linking to his post throughout the trip. We’re also working a way to load our best pictures to Facebook or Flickr. We’ll add this link as soon as we have it up and running.

Today was a “beach day.”  I have not had this experience of Haiti before, and frankly I was not super excited about it.  But after having lived this day, I see the wisdom of NVM in sending teams to this kind of experience.  One of our team members admitted that he had lobbied at least three people (me included) to not do this day, and he found out he was wrong.  I did too.  We were able to see a lot more of Haiti on the bus ride, we were able to slow down a bit and start to think about heading back, and we were able to do some shopping to get some keepsakes for ourselves and others in a safe and controlled environment.  But more than the stuff we did, we were able to participate in the vision of NVM in a totally different way.   It was a very different day and it was a good day.

Tuesday Stories:

Countryside IDP camp

Haiti isn’t all disaster.  In a way, we got to see a glimpse of the potential that NVM is trying to realize today.  On our way out, we passed by the largest IDP camp in Haiti.  It was different from the ones in Port-au-Prince in that it was spread out all over the countryside.  There were thousands living in it however, and it was vast.  We stopped at a market near Cabaret and got some fresh mangoes for lunch.  You can buy about six mangoes for a dollar here, and they taste amazing.  We arrived at the beach and we began to see the beauty in the blue water, the majesty in the mountains, and there was even a waterspout/funnel cloud of sorts across the water by La Gonâve.  Haiti isn’t all disaster…and frankly the disaster only made worse the poverty that was already here.   But there is great potential here, in the people and all around.

Market where we bought mangoes on way to the beach

Funnel Cloud

It ended up being a great team thing as well.  We had some time to think about what we had experienced.  We were able to swim together and play volleyball together.  We shopped and saw a huge crab and some large lobsters that were for sale.  And we even bonded in pushing the bus together.  That story in just a minute.  We talked about our day today first in our evening team meeting, and God did all kinds of things in our team.

Race for the Cure

Secondly we talked about what it will be like to enter back into our “normal” lives after an experience like this.  It will not be easy.  When you have smelled poverty, it leaves a lasting impression that can make our suburban life a challenge. We believe this is a good thing of course, but we are all praying we can wrestle well with God in what he would have us be in coming home.  One team member actually summarized well.  He was reflecting on how he had a  major business waiting that was worth a lot of money, and in comparison to the work of hanging a door with a couple other guys…it seemed to hold little value.  The question he was wrestling with, and the rest of us all heard and are wrestling with to one degree or another, is: What has eternal value? Hanging a door seemed to have great eternal value.  Lots of what we did this week seemed to.

The End of the Bus Saga

Did I mention that I didn’t have one issue with the bus when I drove our medical teams around in February/March?  Sigh.  Today was the longest distance and time I have driven, and it was without incident, until we were rolling into town.  The engine started to sound different and I was suspicious we were out of gas.  We were still going along, and I was asking our translator if he thought it was the gas…and he did.  We were right next to a gas station that didn’t look like it was in operation.  Come to find out it was, it just had about 100 Haitians standing under the covering because of the rain.  I had already driven by when I decided there was no way we were going to make it to the next station, so I quickly pulled a U-turn where there was no U-turn to be had.  Lots of horns honking, but we rolled up into the station and promptly ran out of gas about six feet from the pump. We ended up pushing the bus the last little bit.

Amazingly enough, we saw the police officers that showed up at church on Sunday.  Did I mention there were four police officers that came to church per Pastor’s invitation?  Anyway, we felt very safe as they immediately recognized us and were so excited to see us.

One windshield wiper

So we are driving home, it is raining, and because of no action of my own, other than I turned the windshield wiper on a good 45 minutes prior, the wiper flies off.  It just flew right off.  We happened to be dropping our interpreter when it happened, so Thomas jumped out to try and fix it.  He declined my offer to have him ride on the hood and manually wipe it for me, so instead I peered through the one inch line the former wiper was clearing.  Ahhh…I’ll miss this bus.

Thomas in the rain

The team sure had a good time recounting all of my adventures with this blue beauty.  Thomas drove the bus for a little while tonight, and for some odd reason the team became really nervous when they saw him take over . I thought they would be relieved!  Thomas did a great job, and I took us home through the city.  Have a mentioned I will miss the bus?  I am thinking the team may not have the same feelings.

We leave bright and early tomorrow (Wednesday) for home.  God is so good to us!

Team minus Thomas & Nathan

Haitian Sunset

We love Haiti. I can, with full confidence that I am speaking for everyone, say that we love Haiti.  Okay, there are a few things we could do without.  The traffic stinks, the heat is a bit too hot, there are a lot of bugs.  But these are minor things compared to the gifts we are receiving here.

Painting team

Today we headed out to Chambrun with a few jobs in mind.  Our medical team worked the clinic.  We had a small team complete a project for NVM by taking photos of students.  There was a small team that needed to complete the hanging of a door.  And then there was a team that was tasked with painting the side of the school.  Although these were our tasks, so much more was taking place.  Here are some stories:

Relationships

Susie and Erica

One of the great gifts our team has received are the relationships that have developed.

Jimmy Lindley

Jimmy was one of the people we took home the other night.  He shared his story to Patty and we prayed for him that night.  The next night (Sunday) we say Jimmy walking the street as we were fighting traffic.  He would walk by us and we would all yell “Jimmy!” about as obnoxiously as we could, horn honking, us waving.  Traffic would start moving and we would pass him up, only to start again.  This went on for about four or five times of yelling “Jimmy. “

Patty was able to give Jimmy her backpack, and he was beaming.  They got to spend some more time today and as we dropped him off, he told her “I love you.”  The opportunity to encourage Jimmy, an amazing man of character and faith who is attempting to lead his family, and quite honestly…his encouragement to us seemed to far outweigh anything we could give him (as if you could measure such things).  It was a gift.

Adam, Chris, and Mo

Mo has been our translator most days.  Mo has been amazing, working hard for us every day, and also teasing different team members at different times.  As he got off the bus today, he gave me a hug and said he loved us.

Junior, Shelli, and kids

Junior was one of our translators on the first medical team that Grace sent.  We were able to see him today and find out what is new in his life.  He is back teaching at the university a couple days a week and was married back in April.  Junior has a deep love for his Haitian people and continues to search for the daily purposes for which God saved him from dying in the building the collapsed around him when the earthquake struck.

Tika...with clothes on!

And then there is baby Tika.  We have affectionately named her “Naked-Baby”. For obvious reasons, we will not be posting pictures of her , other than the one of her in the pink bathing suit outfit we gave her. Naked-Baby always seemed to be without clothes in Chambrun, and was just so cute as she played and interacted with our team.  She would allow so many people to hold her, to play with her, and was just about the cutest little kid we could see (as if it was possible to determine who was most cute).

The relationships are what will make leaving so difficult.

Sarah and Friend

Team Debriefs

Our team debriefs have been sacred time.  God shows up, and we share with one another…it really feels as if we are being the Body of Christ to one another.  The conversations tonight resolved around some of the changes that are taking place in us.  One person talked how something big is coming, how the concept is becoming more clear, and how the feelings around this sense of expectation has shifted from apprehension to excitement.  Another team member spoke of how little Haitians have in “stuff” in comparison, but how much faith and joy and other gifts they have to give.  We also learned that Haitians are very trusting.  In the clinic today some of our team were laughing in front of a patient and Melanie asked Mo to let the patient know that we were not laughing at her.  But Mo said he would not because Haitians don’t talk about another person behind their back. It was not necessary.

Ronaldo

We concluded tonight by praying for one of our team members who needed specific prayer.  God continues to show up in our debrief times.  We will certainly  need his presence tomorrow as we talk about coming home and the challenges we will face.

Two Other Details…

Land being cleared

-Some of us took the time to check out the Agriculture project that is in the works.  NVM is currently in process of clearing about 9 acres so that a cash crop of some sort can be planted and sold.  The Mercy Chef who is cooking for all the Campus Crusade students has also planted a small garden.  I think she has about a dozen different things in there.  The agricultural project is lead by one committee at NVM.  There are about 7 other committees that are functioning now as well with lots of opportunities to get involved.

Garden

-The bus driving today was without incident.  Although a couple team members did have a lot of fun with a prosthetic leg that they found in the donated supplies.  The team did a name game exercise the first time we met one another by using an adjective that starts with the same letter as our first name.  The team agreed that “Amazing Aaron” should be re-named “Accident-prone Aaron.”  The team has thrown me under the bus…so to speak.

Throwing Aaron under the bus...

It takes a strong man to pull this...

Susie's the boss

Gary Painting...

Lynn and friends

Glove girl

Sunset from Pierre's roof

Expectancy was in the air as we drove the bus towards Chambrun this morning.  We were going to church!  As we turned on to the last road–a dirt road–we started to pick up friends who were walking to church.  The first young gal was named Lovely, and she definitely fit her name.  As we picked up more Haitians–moms with their children–everyone was dressed in their absolute Sunday best.  As we got close to the campus, we could see lots and lots of people walking from all over to come to church.  Pastor Pierre shared a story tonight of a group of people who live half-way up the mountain and walk three hours to get to church on Sundays.  God’s people were gathering for worship, and we had a feeling of expectation as we got closer.

Pastor Pierre at Church

The worship service was full of passion.  The singing was amazing.  And Pastor Pierre was dynamic.   Pastor Gary is the leader of the church, but was not feeling well and so Pierre needed to step in and speak the message.  He spoke from Lamentations 3 and the faithfulness of God.  We were amazed at his energy and passion for his message, and how he was able to slip back and forth between Creole and English.  The impact he left on us as a man full of the Spirit and encouraging to us was deep.

Pastor Pierre has a tradition of inviting guests up front at church to be introduced and to sing a song.  The team gave a big thanks to Mallory tonight as we stuck a microphone in her hand and tapped her as our leader.  She led our team in “Amazing Grace”…and Mallory was amazing.  Admittedly she was embarrassed, but everyone agreed…the girl can sing!

Children's Choir

Back to the house for lunch, and then back in the bus to drive through downtown Port-au-Prince.  This is the part of the blog where my words break down a bit.  As one gal on our team put it tonight, pictures just don’t come close to capturing what it is really like.  As we turned one right turn, the smell of humanity hit us like we had run into a wall.  Army Adam shared tonight that some of his army buddies who were here right after the quake had warned him that it was worse than the war zone in Iraq.  Adam was so skeptical…until today.  It is so much worse.

white house

And to think it has been six months since the quake and there are still people’s moms, dads, sons and daughters in many of these collapsed buildings.  There were many tears tonight and many expressions of the difficulty of grasping the enormity of it all.

government building

There is so much more to tell as each person is experiencing Haiti and experiencing God in unique ways.  There isn’t room to tell all the stories.  Here are a few additional notes from Sunday:

-We stopped for dinner at a hotel restaurant in Port-au-Prince tonight.  Two of our young girls were conspiring to find a way to pay for our translators meal (Clarice…amazing young man!) before they knew that we were taking care of his meal.

Storm Coming...imagine you live here

-The rain in Port-au-Prince seemed to pick up hundreds and hundreds of bottles and loads of garbage and wash it downhill.  It wasn’t even raining that hard, and yet the trash was immense that was caught in the flow of water.  It was quite a sight to see.

Soccer in the rain on the streets of Port-au-Prince

-We may have made a connection to a ministry here in Haiti that has access to antibiotics and needs clinics like the one at NVM to give them away…at dinner of all places.  They also distribute medications to other clinics, so many of the drugs that we have so many of and will never be used before they expire, could possibly be re-distributed to places that can.

-Aaron and the bus have developed, shall we say, a “special” relationship.  After driving in March without incident, Aaron has successfully taken out a window and driven in the dark with no lights–twice (and probably removed a side mirror for a red car somewhere out there).  Tonight he was once again driving in the dark except this time it was also in the rain. Well, just to add to the growing incident report, today we drove under an electrical wire in downtown Port-au-Prince that was hanging very low and we managed to rip the emergency door that was propped open in the roof straight off its hinges. Sigh…confidence is running low on driving the bus in Haiti.

Dogs take cover in the rain

Tonight’s drive home, in the dark, in the rain, with nothing more than a strobe light on the roof, was without incident until we turned the very last corner before Pierre’s house.  We were met with a giant truck blocking the street to the house.  Round the block I go…which is not as easy as it sounds.  This will require the very narrow right turn that I had to take the night before, which once navigated (barely), had a burning fire where my right tires need to go.  Great….how much character am I going to add to this bus?  I am not sure it can take much more.

Well, the van is parked safely (exhale) in the driveway.  What tomorrow brings, I guess God only knows!

Hands

There was a bit of excitement and anticipation for our team this morning.  The task of helping Mierta move into her home, a home so many hands from America, the community, and now our own have helped build…fell to us.  After the move, our next task was to run a mobile medical clinic.  We were excited.

medical clinic

Medical Clinic

First stop was the camp to pick up a table and chairs for Mierta’s house.  When we arrived, there were five woman who had walked a LONG way to have the children seen at the clinic, only to find the clinic is closed on Saturday.  Our team made the good decision to see these ten patients, and good thing, too.  Most of the children were extremely sick with pneumonia.  While our medical team was busy in the clinic, we were off to move Mierta.

Moving Day

Mierta’s home was constructed with the majority of the work completed a week before the earthquake.  Pastor Pierre was out of the country when the earthquake hit and because of the demands of the disaster response, Mierta’s house has been missing the final details.  Well all the details were finished today, and it was moving day.  Mierta had her Grandmother with her who was very, very sweet.  She was 83 years old, and was very concerned to move a small bucket that we figured out held all of Mierta’s money.

The new home was only about ten yards away from the old home, but this was an event worthy of ceremony.  While Mierta pedaled away on her cart, we pulled a chair to the front porch for Grandma to have a seat.  She began to brush off the seat, but would not sit.  We couldn’t understand what she was saying (even our translator couldn’t tell), and she wandered off.  Pretty soon we see her emerge from the old house having put on a very dressy outfit.

Here was an 83 year old woman who was sitting on her mud floor in her old house, and didn’t feel worthy to sit on the chair of the now concrete floor she will be living in without her best clothes.

We were led in prayer by our elder on our team (Brian) as we asked for God’s protection and blessing on their new house.  It was a special day.  It was moving day.

Prayer at Mierta’s House

While part of the team was sweeping out and attending to the final details of the house, the rest of the group was playing games with all the kids.  Significant relationships had been built, made most evident when we gathered to pray.  We all joined hands to pray at Mierta’s, and Erica had first one, then two, then three…eventually six kids all were grabbing on to her as we prayed.  Apparently she made quite the impression on the kids as the only girl kicking it around with the boys on the soccer field.

One person in our group debrief time summed up the experience in three words: God was there.

Diane and Baby

IDP Camp Medical Clinic

We saw the Body of Christ in action as we gathered around Adam as he performed “surgery.”  Let me explain…Our medical clinic began by finding the elder of the camp (who was a very large Haitian named “SEXY.”  I didn’t think I would be writing this in a blog…I digress) and asking him to hand out fifty slips of paper that were numbered.  We were going to see fifty kids, and only kids because we didn’t have capacity to see all the people that needed to be seen (which is a really tough thing to do).  So we started seeing the children, and there were lots that had all kinds of issues…scabies, all kinds of lung infections, fevers and so forth.  One young child came in with his grandmother.  As the grandmother sat and after the child was seen, she began to explain that she had all kinds of pain from when some concrete fell on her during the earthquake (possible  broken rib).  Try and present a need to a care provider and have them say “no.”  (We did see one other adult…a man who had stitches in his left arm that should have come out about three weeks ago…it was healed over and nasty infected…how do you say no?).  Back to the grandmother…we learned she was in her 80’s.  She never saw a doctor because she could not afford to, so she said.  That was when we also discovered that she had a very infected boil in the small of her back.  This is when Adam and the surgery began.

Adam did a masterful job of removing the infection and packing the wound.  He was clearing the lead man.  But just about everyone else on the team played some role.  Chris assisted…Lynn was giving supplies…Mallory was cleaning up…Aaron was keeping kids away while Gary patrolled outside…guys were running security, Shelli and Thomas were digging meds, needed tools and supplies out of totes…I think some were praying…it was truly the Body of Christ at work as we cared for this elderly woman.

As she got up to leave, she gave Adam a big smile and a huge thanks and said it felt much better…another patient cared for!

Diane's baby

A few other notes:

-One of our, shall we say, more experienced team members got to go back to being a grandpa as he sang and rocked a baby girl named Tiki to sleep on the front porch of Mierta’s.  It was beautiful to see.

Bob and a Beauty

-A mom who was eight months pregnant and was absolutely beaming after seeing her little baby on an ultrasound.

Aaron and Baby Dashka

-One of our medical staff (Adam) is a big, quiet, tough Army guy.  He is not married and does not have any kids.  And yet some teammates observed him caring for a young child, rocking her to sleep as they administered a breathing treatment.  Amazing.

-One of our younger teammates was blown away by her ability to connect with a young gal, for two hours, without speaking the same language.  When she left, she gave her hairband to the little girl, and the girl was beaming and so excited.

-Patient #51.  A mother who did not have one of our 50 slips of paper held her baby for nearly three hours.  She stood right next to 6 foot 5 inch Brian and was not moving until we saw her child.  The child mostly slept, waking up once to nurse.  We thought the child might be dead at one point because it simply did not move.  We would later learn that Mom was pregnant standing there the whole time.  Her child had a terrible ear infection.  I think we all learned something about perseverance and how a good mom cares for her child.  We were more than happy and willing to slip her in as patient #51.

Those Eyes...

I simply take notes at our evening debrief times and the most amazing stories come out.  The team is doing great.  All remain healthy and hydrated.  The temperature was 99 degrees today with at least 70% humidity, which puts the heat index at about 130 degrees Fahrenheit.  Staying hydrated takes gallons and gallons of water!  Here are a few stories from today.

Melanie

Melanie, our nurse practitioner, gave her first ultrasound today!!  She was more than just a little excited.  A 19 year old girl is 6 months pregnant with her third child.  The girl didn’t know was pregnant as she was breast feeding another child.  Melanie has a deep passion for life and helping this Mom see her child was a tremendous joy.

Bueno Bob

Meet Bueno Bob and his painting entourage.

Besides running the clinic today, our other assignment was to prepare Myerta’s house for her to move in tomorrow.  This included hanging the front door, painting big portions of the house, and installing a gate in the front porch.  The day was amazing…not only did the work get done, but kids nails got painted, soccer games took place, a game of ultimate Frisbee was played, duck duck goose, the hokey pokey, kids were held, hands were held…it was amazing everything that happened.

At one point, Bob found himself alone painting,  Before long a couple of the littlest children came over to Bob and wanted to help.  So Bob put them to work with the paint brushes the rest of the team abandoned.  Pretty soon other kids wanted to help…and then some of the older ones.  Before long, Bob found himself supervising probably eight kids painting Myerta’s house.  We like to call him Bueno Bob and his Haitian entourage.

Myerta's house

Dashka’s Mom Paints with Us

When the first Grace medical team was here in late February and early March, we met a young Mom who had a very sick baby girl named Dashka.  Dashka is looking great and growing so fast!  She is beautiful!  After lunch we decide to paint some shelves that are inside Myerta’s house.  Diane communicated to  Dashka’s mom, without the benefit of spoken language, that we needed to clean the shelves and asked if she might have a rag we could wipe the shelves down with.  She not only went and brought us a rag, but proceeded to paint the shelves with us.  When other team members needed a break because it was so hot in the house, she kept painting right along.

Erica’s Cheering Section

As the day wore on, the feeling started to shift.  We came as people who were going to do something for the Haitians.  We were going to finish the house, and we were going to paint finger nails, etc.  By the end of the day, it felt more like a family reunion.  One story sticks out a bit.  Erica is a high school student who is a pretty good soccer player.  She joined in with the boys, most who don’t wear shoes, and played soccer for a huge part of the day.  In the afternoon, a number of the younger girls clearly didn’t feel like they could play, probably long-time victims of the boys exclusion.  But they learned Erica’s name, and every time she would touch the ball, they would yell from atop the grave pile “ER-I-CA!  ER-I-CA!”

If only she hadn’t of blown that wide open goal I set up for her.  Kidding!!  I am only kidding.  She was awesome.

Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, or something fun

The True Haitian Experience

At the camp in Chambrun today, we had one of the guys ask if we could take the translators back with us to Port-au-Prince with us because all the other vehicles were gone.  I said sure, not problem.  Back in March we always took the translators with us when we ran the clinics.  I didn’t know there were going to be close to forty people!  We tried to count, but it was hard because we were packed so full.  Our best guess was about sixty people were on our bus. Did I mention it was a mini-bus?  We had a good laugh thinking about getting pulled over in Hamilton county with that many people on our bus.  We got to live the joke that Pierre told us last night…”How many people can fit on a tap tap?”  We think the answer should be “at least five more.”

Tap Tap...

...it got more than a little crowded.

Jimmy

One of the translators told a couple of our teammates his story on the bus ride, and it was powerful.  We prayed for Jimmy tonight.  Jimmy lost his mom about three years ago, and then lost his dad and grandfather in the earthquake.  He also lost his house.  Jimmy is 27 years old, has eight younger siblings, and a daughter.  They live in a tent in one of the IDP camps…all ten of them together.  He works as a translator at the camp.  Pastor Pierre met him a few months back and invited him to come to a training conference with him in Jamaica.  It would cost him $1,000 US dollars, so Jimmy dismissed it because he would never have the money.  Pierre challenged him to have faith in God.  A few weeks went by and Pierre ran into him again, and asked why he had not heard from him.  Jimmy thought it was just not possible because of the money, and Pierre reminded him to have faith.  Well, Jimmy’s friends began to hear about this opportunity, and, wouldn’t you know that God provided the entire sum.  He went and experienced an amazing conference in Jamaica.  He is now also a worship leader in his local church and has so much hope for his future because of his experience of God’s faithfulness.

God Lives Here

One of our team members summed up his experience in Chambrun as he wrote in his journal last night with three little words:  God lives here.  After spending time in Chambrun, meeting the people, seeing the hope and joy, seeing the potential, feeling the love and faith…his only conclusion that he could come to was simply…God lives here.  I think our whole team would have to agree.

After a good night’s sleep in the air conditioning…and can I just say, whoever invented air conditioning (does anyone know?  Please comment and let us know) holds a special place in our hearts.  Never again will we take this amazing modern invention for granted.  It was wonderful to sleep in cool air.

Pastor Pierre and Aaron

Our first task after breakfast was to sort through all the supplies that we brought, plus a whole bunch of other supplies that previous teams had brought.  9:00 AM and everyone was sweating.  One personal highlight was Gary trying on random 4X clothes that I am pretty sure will not fit any Haitian.  Pierre said that the people will tear them open and use them as blankets.  Haitians certainly are industrious.  We loaded up the newly sorted supplies into the bus and off we went.

Gary sorting clothes

There was one slight incident on the way to Chambrun.  Aaron was our trusty driver…he was awesome in March.  July however didn’t start so great…during a right turn, he learned the valuable lesson of always driving with the door closed.  The team in the back were asking for air conditioning…Aaron delivered with a newly blown out window.  It sounded a bit like an explosion when the glass blew out.  We are pretty sure a red car is missing their driver’s side mirror.

The damage

We arrived in Chambrun and it was hard to recognize the campus if you were here just four months ago.  There are so many new buildings (3 tents, dining hall and kitchen, new bathrooms and showers), and other ones under construction (2 children’s homes, a warehouse, a hospital).  The kids were in school, there were 60 campus crusade kids, and a Dutch group that were all on campus.  We spent the better part of our day in two groups.  One group helped run the medical clinic and sort/organize the pharmacy.  The other group went to hang a front door on a newly built house in Chambrun.

Thumbs up

At our team meeting this evening, Pierre asked the group how many people can fit on the back of a tap tap.  A tap tap is a small pick-up truck that is used as a taxi.  You tap on the roof when you want to get out.  Some of our teenagers rode in the back of Pastor Pierre’s pick-up truck and became very aware of what many Haitians go through as the attempted to keep a door, a door frame, two soccer balls, 5 adults, and half-way through the trip a Haitian, all in the back of their own pick-up truck. American’s have so much personal space, and like it.  This is not a privilege that most Haitians enjoy.  After the group was stumped for a few moments, Shelli chimed in with the right answer…“always one more.”

After lunch

One last note.  One of the guys (Ted) went into the hardware store with Pierre to purchase the door.  It was interesting to observe that these men sit around all day hoping to sell a door, and Pierre shows up and is very willing to buy a door.  And yet, they didn’t jump up and ask to help them.  Almost the opposite actually, it was almost as if it was a bother that they came in the store.  Contrasting this experience was one later in the day where he interacted with a group of young boys from the school.  They were so engaging, one of them Ted is convinced will be an excellent salesman someday.  He shared with the group, and we all affirmed, that the youth in Haiti are so much the hope for this country.  Pierre and Nehemiah Vision Ministries are doing some amazing work, and it starts with the hope in the next generation of kids here in Haiti.

Hope for the future of Haiti

IDP Camp

Food under tent

Bricks