First VBS

Today was s great first day at VBS! We all had amazing experiences sharing God with the children. Many beautiful children ready to sing, play, and learning about creation and the fall of man. We ended the day with a rainstorm...looking forward to tomorrow. Stay tuned!!!

A Haitian Sabbath

This morning we got to worship with the church in Guibert. We arrived as the boys from the home were still in Sunday school, but as they came out we were met with smiles, embraces, and even some happy yells as the returning members of our group reunited with old friends. As we participated in worship with our friends, we were separated by language but connected by our father. Songs like "we exalt thee" in Creole rang through the air, passing through lifted hands and dancing bodies.

We spent the rest of our Sabbath resting and preparing for the VBS in the morning. All our supplies are organized and ready for the day leading the students in lessons, games, songs and crafts.

It has been a beautiful day in Haiti. Tomorrow will be spent with the kids.

Travel Day

Today was full of airports and plane rides. Once we finally got to Haiti though, we were able see some sights on our drive to the Pastors house. The newcomers were surprised by the beauty of the land and the amazing Haitian gardens.

After getting to the house we had a wonderful dinner! Everyone was caught off guard by the delicious food. Even though it's not even 9 pm yet, we are all so exhausted and ready for bed.

Tomorrow we will attend Haitian church and enjoy the sabbath by preparing for our four day VBS! Be praying everything goes smoothly.

Our final day

Wow. What an incredible day. We started off the day as tourists. We got to drive around town and do some souvenir shopping. It was a lot of fun. We got some cool stuff, but it was exhausting. We came back to the girls home, and had a quick macaroni and cheese lunch. We prepped for vbs and headed out for our final day of vbs. The kids were so excited to see us. We had total of 2,100 kids in attendance. The rooms were packed. We had 3-5 people per desk... It was crazy, but glory was brought to god. We told them about how they need to go and tell the good news of Jesus. Some made crafts of megaphones and tambourines. After vbs ended we had a service that the children invited there families to. However, the rain clouds decided to flood Ferrier. It started raining and didn't stop until recently. The rain kept many people away, but some braved the weather. We sat in the tin roof church with no power as the rain pounded down. After a while we had a short service: a message, singing, and prayer. Then we ventured home. They planned something special for us for dinner. We all ate together. Yes, 50+ people ate in one room. It was amazing. Such a sweet moment, everyone mixed together for our last supper. We were then blessed with the opportunity to pray for them and then they prayed for us. The sound of English and creole crying out to god sent chills through my spine. It was an amazing experience. We have slowly started the process of saying goodbye. It is a sad process... Pray for us as we continue to say goodbye and transition back to life in the US. Pray for safe travel. Pray for our Haitian friends who will continue the work here.

Our God Is great!

Thank you Jesus for the rain! We woke up this morning to very wet ground with more rain falling from the sky. The crops in this area were close death, so we were praising along with the Haitians for the rain. Even though we were thankful for the rain and cool weather, we weren't able to continue painting outside. Instead we did chores around the home for the girls. We quickly became very grateful for their hospitality throughout the week. We washed all of the dishes (a lot of them), washed sheets, and cleaned windows. It was a long morning.

After that the fun stuff began, today was the salvation story at VBS. We were able to tell the story of Jesus' sacrifice to roughly 800 children! We had several kids accept Jesus as their Savior today and it was a beautiful sight to see. Also, watching the children worship in song was so sweet and heart warming. We came home to many happy and hyper girls! Our next two hours consisted of dancing, hair braiding, clapping, duck duck goose, and keep away games. We may have been dripping sweat by the time dinner came around, but it was more than worth it. We made so many fun memories during that time!

We have been so blessed to have these beautiful and sweet girls to share a home and play time with. As of now we are under the stars dancing our hearts out to Jesus music.

Please pray for us tomorrow, as we will be encouraging the kids to share Jesus with others and as it is our final full day in Haiti.

June 1st: An Amazing Day

Today we woke up for an early breakfast and went right to work. Half of the group continued painting the windows and while the other half sorted through crafts and decided how to redo the crafts to fit our huge number. After such a crazy day yesterday we readjusted our plans and split the children up by ages. This way worked extremely well. Today was all about how God cares for us. We told the story of the great Samaritan and made a craft that went along with the story. We sang great songs consisting of Hallelujah Praise the Lord and other simple songs explaining Gods care. So todays vbs was a huge success and God was definitely glorified. After vbs we returned to the compound and jeff taught the older girls several praise songs in English and they also learned in creole. Listening to the girls worship was such a beautiful sound. tomorrow we will be sharing the story of Christ to anywhere from 600 to 1500 children. Please pray that God would speak through each leader and translator and that his words would be extremely clear and well perceived. Pray for rosna (the church children's minister) as she follows up with the children who will make the biggest decisions of their lives tomorrow. I have high hopes that tomorrow will be even greater than today!

Day 1&3

Words cannot describe our experience up to this point. Our travel to Haiti was long. We left Sunday and made it to Miami where we had an overnight stay. We left Monday morning at 4am to board our 30 person flight to Cap Hatian. The flight was an experience for all of us. As the plane began the descent we caught our first glimpse of Haiti. It was beautiful. We landed and then waited 2 hours for our luggage to get there. We packed up the trucks and got on the road to Ferrier which will be our home for the next week. As we pulled through the gate we were greeted by smiling kids who just hugged and loved on us. The rest of the day was spent preparing for our vbs. We got to go on our tour and see the girls home, school and the church. We were able to spend some amazing time in prayer as a group. Our voices filled the church, it was amazing. We came back and had dinner and then crashed. We woke up this morning and painted some of the doors and windows at our girls home. It looks so nice. After lunch we got our Vbs supplies together and headed to the church. When we got there we had a huge crowd waiting for us. We had originally planned the vbs for 300 kids, last week that number was changed to 700. Well, today god had different plans. In the midst of rain, we had over 1500 kids attend. It was crazy. We were in no way prepared for this many, but flexibility was key. Everyone stepped up and served above and beyond. It was crazy and chaotic but we managed to get through. There was some discouragement, but we know that despite our desire for perfection glory was brought to god and that His will was done. We regrouped and headed back to the girls home where we had another amazing meal waiting for us. We ate dinner followed by team time and replanning our vbs. We are being stretched and god is doing some amazing things. Continue to pray for our group. Pray or us to know how to handle these large crowds. Pray for our communication. Pray for us to love harder. Pray for gods will to be done.

Btw today is Molly's 22nd birthday and she said spending it with 1500 kids and doing crafts is the best!