The mission of Hope For The Hungry is to "Share the Bread of Life with a Starving World". God has called us to serve people who suffer from hunger that is both spiritual and physical. According to scriptural mandate, we offer food for the body and salvation for the spirit to those who do not know Jesus Christ and will suffer eternal death without Him.

Monday, July 26, 2010

The beginning of our journey

Our team of seven left Dallas on Thursday, July 22nd and arrived in Port-au-Prince around 3:30pm. After a brief orientation and prayer time, we turned in for some eagerly awaited rest.

On Friday we constructed a roof on house #23 of our first 30 homes replacing those destroyed by the earthquake of Jan 12th.

On Saturday we built door frames for ten doors which will be complete on Monday while some of the homes are being painted.

On Sunday we all went to church. Stuart and Angela Platt, Megan Hennig, Amanda Merrell, and Steve and Jake Utley went to church in Guibert with Jean Alix Paul and his family. Dan went to church with Junior Paul in the tiny village of Madam Belizaire. Belizaire is on the large salt lake "Azuei" and has a population of about 250 souls. It is heavily steeped in voodoo and slow to respond to the gospel. About 30 adults attended this church service. The message preached was about the TRUTH that sets us free. There was a positive response by those who attended.

At our evening meetings we have shared the ways God is speaking to each of us and how He wants us to be responsible for what we are observing. We have also determined that we can't get bogged down looking at the huge picture of destruction here but we need to understand that our response will be most effective if exercised "one at a time". We continue to be amazed at the energy and commitment of our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ who are volunteering their time. Please pray for their strength to continue to assist those in desperate need here.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Final day was a success but goodbyes were hard

Today was a great finish to a wonderful week encounter with God.  We left this morning and headed back to Marothiere to finish our last house of the week. During the exhaustingly long walk down the mountain, through cornfields, we could look across to the surrounding mountains and see all of the other homes we finished this week.

When we got to the home, we quickly got to work. Ermisteal, his wife, and 4 children were going to live in the house that we were about to finish. The work went by so quickly and before I knew it, we were all inside, praying for this family in their newly finished home! I think it might have taken longer for us to walk there and back than it did to finish the house. 

We walked up to the school to eat lunch and all of the kids were outside! We got to play all sorts of kids games with them and had a blast! 

A few hours later, Jean Alix took us to Guibert to finish up a last minute inventory of all of our supplies. When that was finished, we got to play with the kids one last time. We brought suckers and bubbles and all had a wonderful time. Our smallest family member, Mackenlay, was going crazy with the bubbles and was so excited when he got to blow and pop them himself. When our driver arrived, we had to say our goodbyes and leave. It was hard to leave our new friends, but we are happy that we had met them all. As we came back to the house, we had dinner, and our team had our last meeting and we are now heading to bed. 

Things to pray for:
- our traveling safety tomorrow, both in Haiti and in the States
- our hearts as we process this experience
- us as we try to acclimate back into American culture

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Today was amazing! Worshipping with our Haitian brothers and sisters is always one of the highlights of my time here in Haiti. Being able to sit in a room full of people who are whole heartedly worshipping our Lord is almost overwhelming. Even though we didn't understand any of the songs, we could feel the spirit of the Lord among us. As a special treat, Jeff preached the sermon, so we were actually able to understand that part of the service! He did an awesome job of teaching us about the love of Christ. It was beautiful to see that the same truths that God has for us are the same truths that He has for our friends here in Haiti.

After church, we got to give the boys their shoes and backpacks. It was such a precious time! We had a translator this time, so we were able to tell the boys exactly what we wanted to. We let them know how much we love them and how blessed they are to be living in our home. They were very appreciative when we let them know that these gifts don't just appear, but that they are coming from people, who love them and the Lord. There were many hugs, kisses, and I love yous when all of the gifts were given out.

After we got back to the house for the afternoon, Jeff grilled for an 8 yr old's bday party. It was really fun. There were hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken, goat, and of course, rice.

Please pray for us as tomorrow is our last day here. It has rained most of the day today, so the mud could put a damper on our plans for tomorrow. Pray that as we say our goodbyes to new friends, that the memories would be sweet and lasting.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Down the road again

Today we went back to Marothiere to finish another home. This house was down the mountain where vehicles aren't necessarily meant to travel... But none the less, we made it down there (and back up)!

We worked on the house of Madam Vanius, who lives with her husband and 8 children. So, of course, as we were working on the house we had a huge audience. We had to make some adjustments to our design because of the supplies that we had available, but once it was figured out, we moved quickly along.

As we were finishing up the house, Jean Alix told us that while we were working, he started talking to the oldest son in the home, Patrick. And under a tree, this teenager accepted Christ! It was so amazing to see the Lord working in the middle of a construction site. Jeff got to pray for him and rejoice to the Father, for drawing Patrick to Himself.

After we finished the home, we headed to the Baptist Mission for lunch and to buy some souvenirs. We had a great time and met some new Haitian friends.
Prayer requests:
- Tomorrow is church day. Jeff is going to be preaching in the morning, so please pray for him as he prepares.
- Pray for us to have an amazing day of worship and rest tomorrow.
- Pray for Jeff and Jen as they have some serious talks with the boys in the children's home.
- Pray that as we hand out shoes and backpacks tomorrow that the boys recognize God's provision in their lives.

Friday, July 16, 2010

A hike for 1.5 hours and 1.5 houses done today! 3 in total!!!

Day 4; Today was a challenging day but it was so good. Our day started off the same. Up by 6. Breakfast at 7. And leave by 8. We drove the hour up to marotiere, and then hiked to the house we were at yesterday which was in LaGrene. We put the metal on the roof pretty quickly and prayed for the family. We then loaded things up and hiked back to a house in marotiere. We got there and started working so hard that we had all of the wood up before lunch. We then hiked about 15min from the house to the church in marotiere where some ladies had made us some spaghetti with hotdogs in it. It was really good and we ate it all so fast, we were done with lunch in 5 min we were that hungry. We then headed back to the house and put up the metal. A storm rolled in with some intense fog that made us all work even faster. When we finished the house we prayed which is such a sweet time with the family. We decided we wanted to go to the next house but we were told it was too far. I called jean alix to see what he wanted us to do. And he told me that it would be several hours before he could get to us, and that the house wasn't ready,'so no more work for today. However, we had to walk from marotiere to robin in order to get picked up. It took us 1.5 hours to get there. Most of this was up a big mountain and we were exhausted... It was a beautiful walk that taught us a lot in the way. We then loaded up into some Haitian transportation and headed back to jean alix's house where we are tonight. We had an amazing dinner and are off to bed. Very tired and very sore. More houses tomorrow.

Pray for strength and stamina, we are very tired and sore from today's hike.
Pray for the village we will be in tomorrow and for the family we will help.
Pray for church on Sunday. Jeff found out today that he will be preaching. Pray that his message speaks to the people and that his translator, Leo, will understand and communicate effectively.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hiking, roofing, singing and now sore...

Day 3: today has been a great day. We are really tired but amazed beyond belief at how good god is! The day started of a little bit earlier and was followed by an hour drive up and down the mountains to some church members from Marotiere but they actually live in the village of LaGrene. The village is about a 2 mile hike off of the main roads up and down the mountainside. We had to carry in all of the supplies in, including water and food. Once we got there we were tired but got right to work. Thankfully some Haitian friends carried all of the wood and metal in. We learned that the house we were working on is for a man named Woohlah and he had been in the process of building a house for him and his soon to be wife when the earthquake came and collapsed all of his hard work. So they delayed their wedding until they could have a house to live in. This couple is amazing and always makes sure the neighborhood kids are fed. Today about 15-20 kids showed up for a plate of rice and beans and jean alix, our pastor and connection in Haiti, told me that they do this often. We finished the house and they told us that they can now get married And will now be married by the end of the year. Amazing. As we finished up the house we invited the family in to pray. Danny prayed for them in English and jean Alix prayed in creole. It was such a cool experience. When we finished Woohlah's father spoke to us in creole and thanked us so much for what we did and for god sending us to him. He want on to say that he was sorry he had nothing to give us but would pray for us and ask god to bless us. This was so humbling and truly meant alot to us.

We then left this house had a quick lunch where we were serenaded by some neighborhood girls who were so happy to see the "blancs" that they went and changed into their Sunday best dresses and sang their hearts out. After this we went on another hike up the mountain to a house that overlooked a beautiful valley. We worked on this house until we had to leave. We were able to get everything finished except for the metal on the roof. We will go back and finish that house in the morning.

On our hike back we were struggling and tired but made it. Jeff got to drive us home because our driver had to go into town earlier that day. He did a great job and is becoming a true Haitian. Tomorrow our goal is to finish the metal on the one house and do another complete house.

Pray for our strength, energy, and stamina. The terrain, altitude and pace is kicking our butts.
Pray for the new village we will go to tomorrow.
Pray for great and renewable rest.

We love you all and cannot thank you enough for your prayers. They are working and we are seeing results.

Day 2- Internet didn't work yesterday so you get this today!

Day 2: Today was our first full day in Haiti and it was quite an experience. We have been using the term TIA (This is Haiti) a lot. One of the key aspects to missions is flexibility, and we have definitely learned a lot about flexibility. The plan for the day was to tour Guibert which is where our boys orphanage and church is. We saw homes that we had previously built, saw future projects, and loved on some kids. We thought we were going to start building but that was not the case. Instead we pulled all of the supplies we would need in order to roof six houses and delivered it to 2 of the churches in different villages where we will be building later this week. The plan for tomorrow is to head out early and drive over an hour on rocky mountain roads to the village of Marotiere where we have the goal to roof two of the houses. We are all excited and ready for this. The land here is beautiful and the people are amazing.

Pray for safety in our travels tomorrow.
Pray for our team to continue to be unified and work well together.
Pray for the new people we will meet.
Pray for our eyes to be openned and our hearts to be prepared for what God has in store for us.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Traveling Tuesday

After a long day of travels we have made it safely to Haiti. It has been a really long day but so excited to be here. All of our luggage and supplies made it. We've sorted it all out and ready to see what tomorrow holds. God is going to do some great things this week. Pray for rest and energy tomorrow.