I thought that RN stood for “Real Nurse!

So Ashley wins the blog title for today. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. I will take some time later to share some of the “honorable mention” quotes later.

So today we are home. We had a long, long travel day yesterday and after nearly of 14 hours of travel we landed in Dayton. We had a fairly long check in process in Port au Prince, but without any issue we made it. We landed early in Newark…which was a great thing because our connection time was going to be very short. We hustled to customs/immigration a little worried about the time. There have been many times that the line to get back into the States has been close to 2 hours long. And we had about that much time to make the connection. We arrived in that area to see that it was empty! Lots of prayers were answered. We blew through that, took that train to a different terminal, and went through security all with time to spare. When we arrived at the gate we were told that the flight was delayed. God answered our prayers that we would make it. We didn’t ask that it would be late. But we are grateful! Our flight that was to leave for Dayton was originally scheduled to leave at 8:29PM…we took off after 10PM. We arrived in Dayton around 11:30PM and were greeted by A LOT of loving friends and family. It was a beautiful sight!

So back to Haiti. There are a few days to make up. Soooo here goes.

TUESDAY

Monday after debrief I was going over the message I was preaching on Tuesday evening and the Lord moved me to do something else. I’ll get there in a few paragraphs.

The group left Tuesday morning at 7:30AM. Having one day under the belt, things moved a little smoother. We had just under 200 kids on day one and more and more kids came each day. There were kids not registered trying to sneak in. We weren’t trying to keep anyone away, but we had to have an order to what we were doing. I would venture to say that each day for the rest of the week we had well over 200 kids. The 5-6 yrs old group had about 70 kids. It was crazy…but awesome!

In the afternoon, we held the purity study with a group of students and the remaining part of our team went out on a prayer walk and others spent time hanging out and playing with village kids. Our time with the students in the purity team was really good. We were a few short during this time. Many of the teens were off taking a government test on Tuesday and Wednesday. But the time was great.

Around 5PM the sound system arrived for our evening worship service. Stephen had some guys in the area build a stage off the front of the clinic. That was a huge blessing. The stage overlooked the field that the recreation team was using. When the sound was ready to go we began blasting some Christian rap music. Music is huge in this community. And we found out that the large majority of the population loves rap. It may not be everyone’s style, but we were there for them. And if they liked it, we played it! One of the things that Stephen had mentioned is that these people like the “bad” kind of rap. In the last several years the Lord has used some great men of God to create some great music. The lyrics are Biblically centered and the music has a great beat. The music drew the people in.

Once the people came we were ready to go. There were about 300-400 people in the area. Some sat right in front. Others toward the sides and back. And then there were others who stayed out in the street and near their homes. A friend of Stephen’s named Maestro led a few songs as we kicked off. After he led, I went up to preach. This would be the first time that I have preached using an interpreter. As I said earlier, the Lord moved me to change the direction I was going to go. He led me to preach on the woman at the well. There is one well in this village. And I believe that people in this community could relate to what took place there, especially the woman. Woman are not looked at in a great way in this area. And I pray God used that story and the message to press on hearts that night.

We wrapped up the evening and loaded up on the bus. We headed to the hotel and had dinner. We ended with a share time of the day. It was awesome to hear how God was moving and using our students during the day.

I will add Wednesday through Friday soon!
 
Dale

The tan I thought I had is washing off!

Today’s blog title comes from Hannah, and it’s one that has been repeated over and over.

With all of the work that we are doing in the village, things are a little dusty and dirty. Let me rephrase that. Things ARE really dusty and dirty! So every day we return to the hotel and get cleaned up and ready for dinner. On one occasion a day or so ago, the girls in Hannah’s room were able to capture this quote. Obviously, the dirt that accumulates on the skin during the day resembles a nice tan. Upon taking a shower, one is merely dirty. After serving today, my tan washed off too.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day. We were able to attend 2 different services. The first service was a Haitian service. Although we could not understand what was being sung or said, it was a tremendous blessing. There was so much dancing…what? Dancing?!?! Yes dancing! As King David said, “I will become even more undignified than this!” I was in that boat. I let my inner-Haitian come out. My dancing was for the Lord and no one else! One of our translators, Jonas, said, “I worship God with all of my heart, soul, mind, strength, and especially my body!” There is quite a release when doing so. It reminded me of our time in Malawi last summer. God did allow one of the musicians to sing a song in English for us. It was, “This is the Air I Breathe.” It was great to sing with him and our team.

We had to leave service early in order to get to the missionary church. We were in the Haitian church for over an hour and a half and they hadn’t even got to the message. And nobody was worried about time. They were blessed to be in the house of the Lord. Such an amazing testimony and a lesson we all could learn.

At the missionary church, the music was led by Stephen and Autumn. They did some very familiar worship music. They included some of our team members to read Scripture and pray. The sermon was led by a missionary here. He focused on our hearts and how we handle circumstances in our lives.

We returned to Stephen and Autumn’s home to eat lunch. This was the first time the team had been there. God has provided them a great space. All of us were able to spread out and relax a bit. We return to the hotel for some free time. Sunday was our free day. Some went fishing in the Caribbean, other snorkeled, some swam in the pool, and others just rested and grabbed a nap…I was in that group.

We had dinner and spent a small amount of time debriefing about our day.

Today (Monday) was a long, but awesome day! Today we began doing VBS in the fishing village. We left the hotel about 7:30AM and arrived at the village shortly after. We set up our areas and started to receive the children into the school yard. The rec team headed to the open space next to the school and began to play with some of the kids. It was cool to watch those who made a connection on Friday pick up where they left off. At about 9:15AM we had most of the kids in their first station. We had a total of around 180 kids (5yrs-12yrs). We broke them up by ages. We had four different stations…Bible story, music, crafts, and recreation. Each group had no less than 40 kids. VBS lasted until around 12:45PM. Once we ended we served all of the kids, translators, and mission team rice and beans.

Once lunch was over we released the kids out of the school yard. The afternoon looked different than the morning. We are doing a four day session of walking teens and young adults through God’s standard of purity. Sexual immorality runs rampant in Haiti…much like many places in the world. So we are having the opportunity to pour into these students. While many of us teach and share, the remaining team members were playing with kids and prayer walking. This lasted for about 3 hours. There were so many questions about God, Jesus, Heaven and Hell, and even the tribulation following our time with them. Tomorrow we do this all again! Praise God!

Tomorrow we also have the first of our 2 revival/worship services. We are expecting hundreds of people. One of the locals will be having a Christian concert and worship music. Some from our team will share their testimonies. And I have the opportunity of preaching. Please pray that the Holy Spirit falls on the village and that many will come to know Him!

Well, I’m off to dinner. After dinner we will spend some time talking about our day. I’m sure many will be ready to sleep. Pray for rest. Pray for those not feeling the best, that God would give them strength (nothing major, so don’t worry). Pray that there would be continued unity among our team (it has been awesome thus far), and pray for a great day tomorrow. God is so good and we are so grateful to be serving here in Haiti.

Pressing On,

Dale