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!

Magalie The M.D.

Magalie Surling

Magalie was one of the first eight children in our home in Guibert, Haiti. She came to us as a three-month old baby, malnourished and near death. She fought a courageous battle to survive and, with the help of God and a loving staff totally dedicated to Haiti's children, grew stronger and stronger with each passing day.

By the time Magalie began school, the effects of malnutrition and abuse began to be replaced by her devotion to Jesus and His miraculous provision of health and unconditional love, administered through our staff at the Spirit of Truth Home in Guibert. Magalie blossomed as she learned more and more about the uncoditional love of the Savior who made a commitment to those who would "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness...". Magalie decided that she wanted to become a doctor and give her life to the heling of bodies, just as her Messiah had done for her.

This weekend, she will be graduating from Universidad Technologica de Santiago (UTESA), a Medical School in the Dominican Republic. Upon the completion of her studies she will return to Haiti to be the only medical professional for about 60,000 people in the far Northeast region.

We are so proud and excited for Magalie and her accomplishment! Please be in prayer for this lovely young woman and her ministry as a doctor in Haiti. We look forward to see the people God will touch through her.

Last day in Haiti

Today was the team's last work day. The men continued to dig a hole and the women organized a storage room. We spent the afternoon playing with the kids and practicing our creole. It was so neat to see how joyful the kids were despite circumstances and how eager they were to teach us. It was bittersweet because we were bonding with the kids, but we also knew that it was our last day to be with them. It was hard for all of us to say goodbye, but we know that as brothers and sisters in Christ we will see each other again. We have all been challenged and changed this week and these memories will stay with us for a very long time.

A beautiful day in Haiti

The pace of things was a little different today in what we did. Our team split up into two groups again. One group stayed at the missions house and continued to work by digging a hole and moving rocks. As far as workload went, it was much slower, but still productive.

The other part of our group went on a hike to a nearby village to put more plaques up on new houses. It was cool to be in the midst of nature and see Haiti from a perspective that we (or at least I, Landra) haven't seen yet. As we walked I was reminded of how beautiful our God creates and how much he must love us to want us to enjoy such incredible sights. On our journey we put plaques up at five newly built homes. The gratitude that the people showed us because we had come and hung something up was amazing. It was truly humbling to be a part of such an awesome experience.

After lunch the team all went and played with the school kids at recess. We sang songs and fellowshipped with them. It makes you feel pretty good when there are kids just tugging on you wanting all of your attention because they are excited that you are there.

From there, the men on the team went down and worked for a while longer digging and moving rocks. The girls went up around the school and spent time with the kids as they got out of school for the day.

Today was amazing and it's so evident that God is at work here everyday. Please continue to pray for us as we wind up the week. It's going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow to everyone (it's the last day we will be in Guibert). The love that fills this place is wonderful and it's encouraging to see the body all working together to glorify the Lord on a day to day basis. As we get ready to leave we know what true joy looks like now, if we didn't already, and for that we are thankful.