Haiti: Day 4 {part 2}

  When we had finished our time in the small village, part of the team walked back down to the Mission, while the rest of us climbed up this "mountain".  It's a very steep incline with no path and a lot of loose rocks.  Although it personally took me longer to get all the way up there, I was so glad I went all the way!  It was gorgeous!  

  Being up there was such an eye-opening experience.  I'd like to share with you what I shared on Sunday during our report at church (okay, I wrote it, Lynel read it.  I lost my voice :P):

 On Friday we went to a small village called New Jerusalem.  This was a new village, about two or three months old, located on the side of a mountain across from the Mission, and consisted of about seven homes and about forty people.

 We were welcomed into a particular home where a family of seven or eight lived.  It had one bed, two small pieces of furniture, and several small children living there - including a one-month-old.

 As I sat in this shelter of metal and tarps, I remembered that I used to complain about sharing a room with my sister - a bedroom bigger than that home.  And they are sharing this "room" with eight people and it's the only room they have! 

 After our time in the village, Tim, Tanner, Christine, Nate, and I - along with two of Tom's boys - climbed the rest of the mountain.  Some faster than others.  But when I finally reached the top, all I saw was beauty and God's creativity.  

 I realized, standing up there, that even amidst all the hurt, amidst all the spiritual darkness, amidst all of the poverty...there is beauty.  It's as if God placed those majestic mountains and the gloriously blue Caribbean Sea, in a land where poverty thrives, to remind us that He is there...that He has always been there...and that He will always be there, creating beauty amidst poverty.

  That is the biggest take-away that I took home: there is beauty amidst the poverty.  The above pictures just do not do it justice.  On one side of the mountain were more mountains; on the other side was the Sea.   I often heard in my mind, and even by team members, "Climb Every Mountain" from Sound of Music while walking up these mountains/hills.  That was pretty great. :)

  Love always,
      Sierra

Haiti: Day 4 {part 1}

  Power Girls!!  I was so excited to attend the Power Girls and experience a discipleship group in another country!  I was surprised, and delighted, to find I run LIVE very similar to how Kristi and Islande run Power Girls.

  The girls competed in Sword Drills.  I loved seeing how excited they got as they raced to find the correct Bible verse!  And how intently they listened while reading the verses.

  Jenna shared her testimony with these girls while Johnny translated.  These girls were captivated with her story - I watched as they glued their eyes solely on Jenna and their ears were only for her.

  Next came the tissue paper flowers.  The girls got to choose the colors they wanted, so it was more personalized.  It was so fun to watch them make them and to help them if needed!

Here's the group!

  Next post, I'll be sharing what we did Friday afternoon.  What I took away from Friday afternoon, I will have with me for the rest of my life.

Love in Christ,

    Sierra

Haiti: Day 3 {part 2}

  After a meal of chicken, rice, fried plantains, and homemade lemonade at a Haitian restaurant, we headed out for the River Walk.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I had so much fun, though, and was so encouraged by all that happened - even the smallest moments.

  First, we had to drive quite a ways down what we would call a "back road".  The road ran along a river where we saw kids swimming and bathing.  One little boy ran up from the river next to the road, jumped up and down, waved his hands, and yelled "Blanc! Blanc!", and called his friend to come see, too.  What a great way to start the afternoon!  When we got to a small village, we all piled out of the truck and the kids found us right away.  One sweetie wanted to come along, but she was too young, and her sister wouldn't let her come with me.  We started walking to our destination: another village tucked away and accessible by a very narrow path which crossed the river twice.

While it wasn't easy trying to walk against the current while carrying one girl and holding the hand of another, this was one of my favorite moments from the whole trip.

 This picture shows the width of the path the majority of the time.  We passed a couple banana/plantain groves, some quenepa trees, beautiful flowers, and a lot of randomly tied goats, cows, and donkeys along the path.

  When we first got to the village, we tried rallying up kids to get them involved.  Then, we sat them down to hear Christine's Bible story, sing with Johnny, and play a few games with us.

  This kiddo, when we first arrived, was so scared of "blancs".  He cried and hid behind his dad.  When he calmed down and we were no longer surrounding him, his dad asked if I could go over to him to see if he'd come to me.  He did!  We sat together during the Bible story and it was so fun to see him get more and more comfortable!

  After our walk back, we headed back down the road and this little girl was running after us!  So sweet.

  A very blessed day.

 In Christ,

   Sierra

Haiti: Day 3 {part 1}

  On Thursday, our day started by making a stop at the Mass Grave.  You can see in the two following photos that there is a village directly next to it.  These kids were very excited to see us!

  This is the memorial for the 2010 Earthquake.  This memorial says, "12 January 2010; We Will Never Forget".  

  We climbed a hill overlooking the Mass Grave.  Three crosses stood at the top of this hill.  On the right side of this photo, you can see the memorial.  In the photo below, the main tract of land you see is the Mass Grave.  This solemn property is where 200,000 to 300,000 people are buried from the 2010 earthquake.  It breaks my heart thinking about it.

 The two young men on the right and left both shared their stories of what happened on January 12, 2010.  This was JD's (left) first time sharing his story.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to share that story...for the first time...at the Mass Grave.  What breaks my heart most about this place is that family members of lost ones can visit, but they don't know where they are buried.  I would imagine it would be hard to find closure.  Here in the U.S., we have grave stones so we can go directly where our loved ones are buried to remember them.

  Up on the hill, this photo was captured of the other man who shared his story.  He knelt and seemed to pray and worship.  This photo really struck me: he had lost everything - home, family, friends, his city - and he is at the place where his loved ones are randomly buried, and he kneels at the foot of a cross to worship our Lord.  Even during his story of the earthquake, he gave glory to God!  What a testimony!  And how convicting for the rest of us - at least for me.  

  When we left the Mass Grave, we headed to a Haitian market.  It was not appropriate to take photos, but it was certainly an interesting experience!  This was not a place for tourists, this is where Haitians went to buy meat, fruits, vegetables, and I spotted some other household objects such as toothbrushes and the like.  We split up and I was in a group with four others.  We walked through the meat section where at least a dozen individuals were selling their meat.  We walked through the seafood section, where the smell of fish was extremely strong.  But you wouldn't know, now, would you, Tim? :)  When we all gathered back together, we had so many new fruits to try!  We had purchased mango, avocados, pineapple, sugar cane, coconut, bananas, quenepas, and so, so many more!  Over the next few days, we got to try several of those fruits.  Let me tell you, I don't like mango here in the US.  Oh.my.word.  It is SO good there!  And the pineapples taste like candy (and they're white!).  Very interesting to try new foods and how different everything tastes when they're fresh! :)

 Next post: the River Walk. 

Love,

   Sierra

Haiti: Day 2

This was our ride for the week:

Big Blue

First thing we did on Wednesday was take a tour of the Mission: where they hold church and have a school.  The property is owned by Jesus in Haiti Ministries.  We took a walk behind the Mission walls up overlooking the Caribbean Sea on one side and mountains on the other.  The views were beautiful in Haiti!

  Up on this hill, Johnny, a man very involved with JiHM, very on fire for the Lord, and very good with children, gave his testimony.  It was wonderful to see how God works in so many people's lives.

This is our team with several of our translators and a few children who joined us

  After our walk back to the Mission, we drove to a village to be with children.

  You can see the rocks on the ground: some are small, some are large, all are sharp and pointy.  These kids just jump roped right on them, happy as can be!  It made me realized that we even take smooth cement for granted!  The majority of children in the US would request to move to grass...or cement.  I remember sweeping the driveway when jump roping or such things.  Yet they are just enjoying the activity!  And, it makes their feet stronger - they are able to withhold more.  Good object lesson there, right, Lynel? :)

  We gathered all the children to do a Bible story, which they thoroughly enjoyed.  Johnny got all the kids going by singing Every Move I Make - in English!  So much fun to watch!

  This sweetheart fell asleep while I was holding her.  Such a cutie!

Here she is, awake.  Cute, isn't she?!

  When we were finished at that village, we went to another to do some home-visits.  These were homes of families who have daughters in Kristi's discipleship group: Power Girls.  I don't have any photos of this, but it was a wonderful afternoon!  We were welcomed into homes where we were immediately offered seats, whether that be on chairs or a bed.  We prayed for the families, also. 

  We ate dinner at the Lighthouse - the JiHM orphanage which provides a home for 12 children currently.  We played some games with the kids before we headed back to the Guest House for the night.

 Fun fact that I noticed: the bags of chips in Haiti?  They're full!!! :)

Love,

   Sierra

Haiti: Day 1

   Our time in Haiti was so amazing, words can't fully describe what my heart wants to share.  Over the next several blog posts, I will be sharing with you each day of our time in Haiti.  These posts will consist of photos, what I learned, and what we did.

  My whole family  woke up with me and we were out the door before 2am to eat breakfast at Perkins.  Yep, my family's pretty cool. :)

  We arrived at the church at 3:15am on Tuesday morning all awake and ready to go!  

at the airport, saying goodbye to Pastor who was kind enough to get up so early to drive us to the airport

  After making our way through the maze of people who wanted to "help" us with our bags, we saw Nate and Kristi and we were off!  Nate and Kristi moved to Haiti one year ago and are a part of our church.  To see all they are doing in Haiti was simply amazing!

  When we arrived at the Guest House, we unloaded our bags and got settled in.  We then walked down the road to see if we could help this man (below) fix his broken sewing machine.  Jean does a lot of sewing so she was eager to help this man.

 The rest of us looked at the fruit.  Quenepas (otherwise known as Spanish Limes) are only in season in August.  They are amazing!

Quenepa
source

   This sweet little boy was sitting here with his mom.  What a cutie!

  Kristi went down to Haiti with a goal of helping women learn to grow gardens.  Here is Kristi's at the Guest House - it's on top of the roof!  She has helped grow several other gardens, a couple of which we got to see!

    Our day ended (as it did the rest of the week) on this wonderful veranda.  At night, it was usually breezy and a wonderful place to play team games and team reflections.

Fun little fact that I'd written in my journal: the water trucks deliver water bags to the villages.  These bags are about 4"x4".  The trucks actually play music like an ice cream truck does here in the States!  Fun to see!

Day 2 coming tomorrow!

  In Christ,
     Sierra

in 36 hours...

In 36 hours, this group will all be leaving their houses to meet at 3:15am to head to the airport.

I can't wait for this trip to Haiti!  We have such a wonderful team, and I know God is going to work through each of us and in each of us.

I can't believe we're only 36 hours away from leaving!  Not only that, but I can't believe all we'll be doing within those 36 hours: packing, working, shopping, and school (at least I'll be doing school!).  Not to mention any preparations that have yet to be made.

Your prayers for our safety and health are greatly appreciated.  I recently read a book called When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  This is a wonderful book to read especially when going on a short-term mission trip.  Anyway, this book included the following quote:

"Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good." (pg. 61)

Which leads me to my next prayer request: please pray that we will realize our mutual brokenness and have a godly mindset as we head down to Haiti.

With love,

Sierra