6:30- The bus leaves Pastor Pierre’s and heads out to the NVM Campus.

8:30- We arrive at Chambrun, and I go to help Steve install insulation in the Elliot’s
house.

9:00- 12 members of our Team leave to go set up a medical tent in an IDP Camp.

10:00- I head over to the Clinic where I helped Kelsea fill prescriptions, and Krista
and Kacie with redressing a patient’s wounds.

1:00- Lunch: Pigs in a Blanket, Rice and Beans, and Tomato Soup

1:30- I go back to the Clinic and organize meds and fill prescriptions in the
Pharmacy.

3:30- Terri, Gary, Krista, Kacie, Kelsea, Deb, Jeff, and I walk to the village of
Chambrun.

4:30- Dinner: Eggs, Bacon, and Pancakes

4:45- Team members return from the IDP Camp and hit the gate with the door of the
bus, bending the door until it no longer closes.

5:00- It gets dark.

5:30- Help Gary and Jeff try to beat a bolt into falling off the bus door, which it
eventually does along with the door itself.

6:00-Leave NVM, and on the way home we pick up Mark who’s plane landed at 4:10.

7:20- Arrive back at Pastor’s house.

8:00- Team meeting where Kelsea and I lead worship.

9:43- I lay here writing this, hoping I can go to bed soon…

Fish Oil

I really struggled with feeling like I wasn’t doing something important today. All I kept thinking was that this is a stupid menial task. I felt like I wasn’t helping anyone, and I longed to be out in the IDP camp helping those in need. And then it hit me. What I was doing mattered. I was furthering God kingdom. I was doing a simple task, but when I thought about I realized these pills would help make the people of Haiti healthier. The role I played today mattered.

The Warehouse

This inspired me and caused me to excel in the day’s tasks. We packed over 30 bottles of fish oil and vitamins. We painstakingly counted thousands of Creole Bibles, water bottles, and Crocs. Lucy and I challenged our fear of heights and climbed up in to the storage containers. Today was a day of service. A day where we saw God’s kingdom in motion.  Our mundane tasks will make the future of NVM a better place. What a humbling feeling…

In the bible, Job lost everything. He lost his family, wealth, and home. Even his wife gave up on God, telling Job to “curse God and die.” But he didn’t. He looked to the skies and said “Lord, Blessed be Your name.” The Haitians have lost everything. Their families, their homes. Yet they still turn to God and bless His name. In suburban Hamilton County most have everything they will ever want and find no reason to need God in their lives. Tonight we sang the song Blessed Be Your Name, and the bridge that goes “You give and take away. You give and take away. But my heart will choose to say, “Lord, blessed be your name.” This hit us like a ton of bricks. God has give us so much, yet has taken so much away from the Haitian people, and some how they are still some of the happiest people I’ve ever met. It’s because they haven’t give up yet. They’re looking to the skies, saying “Lord, blessed be Your name.”

My challenge to all of you at home this week is to praise God in everything you do. Sometimes the menial tasks, can further his kingdom.  So while you’re driving to work this week let go of your petty complaints and issues and cry out to God and bless His name. Find His glory, and praise it with all that you are.

If you’d like to hear more about the other half of the team’s trip to the IDP camp head over to getcompelled.com. (You might have to wait until tomorrow.)

But today God showed me how foolish I was to judge what I was seeing so quickly. As we drove into Chambrun, my jaw dropped. A total of 4 new buildings, have been put up and 3 more are following quickly. The Nehemiah Campus looks like a completely different place.

We were soon seated in small benches that are angled 90°, and happen to be completely uncomfortable. So as we sat in our benches surrounded by scores of children, we listened to Pastor Pierre speak and sing for 3 hours. Sorry Grace staff, but I have never been to a more powerful church service. Pastor spoke about how the Haitian people are still here “malgre toot” or in spite of everything. They can’t just call 911 when cholera breaks out of a hurricane called Tomas heads directly for them. They have to call on God. He’s their only hope. I stared in rapt silence as Pastor spoke, so inspired by his words.  I realized the Haitians sitting around me were, some of the most amazing Christians I’ve had the privilege to meet. Malgre toot, they are still standing. Stronger than ever. The hope that soared inside of me was such an amazing feeling.

What we saw next was a complete contrast to the hope and joy we saw in Chambrun. As we drove through Port Au Prince our hearts broke. All the joy in the eyes of the people was gone. The dwellers of downtown had become comfortable in the squalor of tent cities they were living in. They don’t have the energy (or if they do they don’t want to use it) to return to their old lives, content to live in the mundane ones they presently find themselves in.

One of the team members named Kelsea spoke about how she tried so hard to find God in Port Au Prince. He was so easy to see in Chambrun, but stubbornly elusive downtown.  She told us that she realized that by not being able to find God, it was clear to her how much we need him.

Things in Haiti haven’t changed, yet things in Haiti have changed.  God is here, and his people are rising up. They are taking the reigns and leading the people of Haiti into a new day…

Goodbyes are hard. At least they were today. We cried and laughed and gave each other HUGE hugs. We were sad to leave our translators, Clerice and Dennis. We were sad to leave our friends from Grace, Aubrey and Kasie. And we were sad to leave our newfound friends from Haiti and Pennsylvania.

The team before leaving for the airport.

Today was sad.  Today was hard. Most of these people we will never see again. That’s a pretty sad fact. But most of us realized the hope in the tears. We’ll see them again one day. In heaven. They’ll be sitting there next to us when our Lord and God says to us ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Once we left the Nehemiah campus, we thought the tears and sad thoughts would go away. We were wrong. As we drove through Port Au Prince, we were reminded about how sad of a shape this country still is. We might have changed some things, and we might have helped raise a generation of children that will radically change the country. But on the way to the airport we realized that Haiti still needs help. It needs your help and our help. Only the in the future will we see how Haiti will grow and change…

IDP Camp.

We’ve spent the last week serving the people of Haiti. So, today was our day of rest and relaxation. We headed about an hour away from where we’ve been staying and spent the day at the beach.

Beautiful!

This place was beautiful! The water was perfectly see-through, and the beach was full of beautiful shells. Throughout the day we played volleyball, swam, snorkeled, and rode on a jet ski. For lunch we had a buffet of pork, fish, chicken, noodles, and fried plantains. Man do the Haitians know how to cook! The food was fabulous and a nice change to our daily diet of rice and beans.

Delicous meal!

Overall our day at the beach was AMAZING! It was beautiful and relaxing. But our trip had an ulterior motive. Our trip to the ocean, showed us how Haiti could be. It gave us hope. Hope that our efforts will one day pay off. Hope that the destruction and brokenness of this country can turn into beauty. God is here. He is in this country. He has a movement that’s sweeping through this nation. We were part of this, and one day it is all going to pay off.  One day Haiti will be a beautiful place in God’s kingdom…

Haiti can be beautiful...

Day 4: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=464601&id=880895057&l=0e0b8519e0

This morning didn’t turn out as well as it could have. I woke up ready for the day and excited to finish painting the clinic. I painted for about an hour before I started getting dizzy and nauseous. A.K.A I was getting dehydrated. Momma Jenn ordered me to go lay down and take a break from the hot Haitian sun. It took me awhile but I started to feel slightly better and decided to head back out and continue working. As I was walking by the line of Haitians waiting outside the clinic, one of the women looked at me, opened her mouth, and pointed to her teeth. At first I thought to myself, “ Why is this woman showing me her teeth!” But I soon came to realize that she wasn’t just showing me here teeth… She was telling me to smile. She was telling me that I shouldn’t be upset and I should be happy. Happy for what I have, and what God has done for me.

Smile!

We spent the rest of the day serving the people of Haiti. We decided that the coolness of the late afternoon would be a good chance to visit the village of Chambrun again. As we headed into the village, the children once again bombarded us. They were so happy we where here to see them. We spent about an hour just playing soccer, coloring, and blowing bubbles with them. They LOVED it.

After about an hour, Ashley from the Pennsylvania team started to teach the children a Bible story. They really got into it and loved learning about Phillip’s trip to Ethiopia.

Ashley teaching the story of Phillip.

Our trip to the village was just what we needed. It left us all smiling. These children have a way about them that just brightens the spirit.

Before we all headed off to bed (my head has unfortunately yet to reach my pillow), our team had a bit of a debrief session. During the debrief I realized something as I was looking up at the stars. God placed each and everyone of the these stars in the sky…and he knows them each by name…which means he knows our names, and it means that all twenty of us are here in Haiti for a reason. God chose us to be here. Out of all the people in the world he chose us. When the trip first started people kept asking me what motivated me to come here. Tonight I realized that it was God. He called me here. He called each and everyone of our skill sets (which happen to be very versatile) to this place. He called us here to make a difference. Not in HUGE ways, but in small yet vastly important ways. Whether it’s putting piping into the hospital foundation where no one will ever see it, or painting a building in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t matter, because God has a plan. He knows what he is doing. And I trust him. I trust him with all of my heart…