Full!

As promised, here are the pics from Saturday's market experience.

This picture of Alex's market group is taken on the shore where all the boats come in with their goods. Most of the boats are row boats and they came a long way in order to be at the market. These people work very hard. 

As always, worship at Christ the King was a total joy. I wasn't sure how our teens would handle sitting in church for 2 hours with most of what is happening is something we can't understand. But last night I had the opportunity to talk with some of them about it and they really thought it was great and couldn't believe how quickly the 2 hours went. 

The goodbyes on Sunday are always difficult. We know all week long that they are coming, but it doesn't make them any easier. I love when a group first arrives at Christ the King. They don't yet know the children and are a little shy with them. They see the poverty and differences in our cultures and are understandably timid. By the end of our first full day with the children it's like they've known each other all their lives. The children know all of our names and we remember some of theirs. By Sunday, the relationships are sealed and the poverty and language barriers are no longer an issue. Relationship. Relationship. Relationship. Can you see it in these pictures? 

Sunday afternoon, Julie Clobes and I were privileged to attend the Kindergarten (culmination of 3 years of school) students. 27 students were in the class. It really was very exciting to see and be a part of the ceremony. The graduation was a little bit more elaborate than our Kindergarten graduation ceremonies. This was much more like a high school graduation, with guest speakers, performances by the graduates. It lasted 3 hours, complete with sandwiches being served near the end. Each student received a backpack from the ones we brought with us. That was cool to see. The other thing I really appreciated about the ceremony was that as each graduate received their diploma and backpacks, the families of each student came up with gifts for their special graduate. Their picture was taken and the next graduate was called forward. When we are in Haiti we see very little parent involvement with the children so it really was great to see the families smiling at their children, waving to them, taking their pictures...just like we do. 

And then the fun began. After graduation Julie and I had the opportunity to ride in the tap tap as we drove 2 rounds of people home from the ceremony. It was awesome. There were so many people in the back and on top. Another cultural experience for sure! Jacques wanted us to ride in the cab, but we explained to him that we were having the time of our lives riding in back. We rode there all the way to the hotel where Jacques and his wife, Ruth joined us for dinner. 

And thus ends our week! God is so good! We're full of His Holy Spirit! He has given us phenomenal times in worship together, He has opened our hearts to see what He sees and He has given us new thoughts as to what it means to walk with Him. We are ready to come home and see our families and friends, but a part of our hearts remain here. 

See you soon!

Lisa :)

On Behalf to Collide Team Haiti

This is the Day the Lord Has Made!

I'm so excited. I already know it's going to be a great day! I'm sitting outside in Haiti, waiting for the sun to appear over the ocean. And, today we get to be in worship with all the people at Christ the King. I'll be sharing the message of the Gospel, Tyler will be reading from God's Word, and our students will be singing two songs accompanied by Tyler and I on guitar. That's just our part. I know the members of the church will lead various parts of worship too, and I KNOW we will be blessed and strengthened in our faith journey as a result. It just doesn't get much better than that! My anticipation for corporate worship today is off the charts! I can hardly wait!

We had a chance to experience the market in Archaie yesterday. The kids loved it! It was for sure a rich cultural experience and one that had us thinking about and talking about the vast differences in our lifestyles and the bigness of God who sees it all. The pictures below are a couple I took at the market with the group I experienced it with. We saw many goat heads. I stopped and asked if they eat that or if it was just a display to show the kind of meat they were selling at that table. They eat it! Whoa! I am not ready for that cultural experience--at all!

From the market we went to the church for a little while to have lunch, clean up, and hang out with the kids. I also had the opportunity to have a great meeting with Jacques (Administrator of the church and school ministries) to talk about January and our future partnerships. Unfortunately I was not able to finish the conversation so Jacques and Ruth are having dinner with us tonight at the hotel so we can talk more. I'm excited to have them join us.

This afternoon Julie Clobes and I will attend the graduation ceremony of students from the school at Christ the King. I can hardly wait to tell you about that. I will try to get as many pictures and videos as possible.

The sun is peeking through the clouds. Time to finish getting ready for church. Sorry about not posting the pictures I mentioned earlier in the post. I can't get them to load quite yet. Maybe later I can just post pics here for you.

Blessings as you worship the Lord! We will be praying for and thinking about our Lord of Life family as you gather. We know you will be praying for us and our partners in ministry at Christ the King.

Lisa :)
On Behalf of Collide Team Haiti

This picture is a great visual for how much fun we are having leading the children in VBS! Our story yesterday was David and Goliath. The kids absolutely loved seeing us try to capture just how big Goliath was. My favorite part of the day was hearing our translator give voice to Goliath, and Logan trying to mouth the Creole words as if she was the one saying them. It felt like I had stepped into a bad Japanese Godzilla movie. Too funny!

This video gives you a little glimpse into our worship time with the teens and young adults. Our students continue to talk about how powerful it is to worship with people who don't speak the same language as we do. Different language. Same passion to worship the Lord. In our time with the students we talked about how what we believe to be true about Jesus influences how we handle challenges. Very cool to hear from each other about various challenges and how we are learning to trust God more and more as He proves again and again that He is trustworthy. One young woman shared how she had been sick for weeks with a lot of pain through her abdomen. She didn't have money to go to the hospital so she prayed for God to heal her. One night she had a dream that someone opened her chest, removed the pain, and then taped her back together. When she woke up she had no more pain and hasn't had any since that night. God is our Healer! Some of our students shared some struggles as well and talked about how various things in their lives have strengthened their faith.

Today we are sharing the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with the children. Our craft is making mirror frames. With the teens this afternoon we are talking about deception and also about how to live in this culture as a woman/man of God. Looking forward to a great day!

More tomorrow!

God is Faithful

I've been a follower of Jesus my entire life. I've been in full-time ministry for 27 years. I've seen God do amazing things! I've experienced the beauty of God's timing. I've heard God's voice and followed Him. And still, God has to show me again and again that He is faithful and that I can rest in the knowledge that He is trustworthy!  Yesterday was one of those times.

I was anxious about how the afternoon would go. Working with the teens and young adults in Haiti was not something we had done before. As we planned we really felt that worshiping together should be part of the experience but how do we do that when we don't speak the same language? Tyler and I brought our guitars wondering if this worship thing would work? It not only worked, it was amazing and I can't wait to do it again today! We sang, "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" because we knew the Haitians knew that one. We could sing it at the same time. It worked. Then we sang "How He Loves"--a song they didn't know. We told them what we were singing about and they listened. Then they sang something we didn't know and it blessed our socks off! We had no idea what they were singing, but we knew the Object of their praise! And there we were caught up in the middle of worship, hands raised, tears filling our eyes, and soaking it all in.

Then, we weren't sure how the teaching in large groups with small group discussions would work. Tyler taught about Daniel and how Daniel believed and trusted in the Lord and how that belief determined what he allowed into his life. Talking about that in small groups opened up great dialogue and questions. Amazing.

Today, our VBS story with the little ones is David and Goliath. I can't wait for the kids to see Steven Cargin in the role of Goliath! They are going to love it! We are making necklaces with them. In the afternoon our bottom line is, "What you believe to be true about Jesus determines how you face challenges."

God is so good!

Lisa :)

Collide Arrives in Merotte, Haiti

I am so very grateful for the journey leading up to our arrival in Haiti yesterday afternoon. When Tyler and I first presented the idea to the high school students that we were feeling God's calling for our group to join Lord of Life's efforts in Haiti they were not pleased. Not pleased is actually putting it mildly--some cried at the thought, others would not support it, and a few just glared at us. It was a difficult time with our Collide leadership and Tyler and I were not sure how it would go. Tyler and I went back to the drawing board, discussing various options. Where else could we go? The kids weren't happy. Our job was to plan something that they would be excited about--something they would sign up for so we could have a successful mission trip. But at the end of the day we still felt a strong leading from the Lord to pursue Haiti.

When I put the registration out, not a single person signed up for 3 months. No one! I began exploring mission options within the United States. Nothing. And then, just before pulling the plug on the whole thing, a registration with a deposit showed up on my desk--Emma Anstine was in! That was all the encouragement I needed. God had His hand on this and was calling me to trust. Before I knew it another and another and another registration appeared. In all, 17 committed to being a go-er. Yea God!

So when we arrived at Christ the King yesterday it was a moment. To hear our students oooh and ahhhh when they saw the children just made me smile.

Gathering with our students last night in worship was another moment of gratitude for the journey. God is so faithful. This trip is His!

Pray for us today. Lots of anxiety for how things will go with VBS and our teen ministry in the afternoon.

Can't wait to tell you about it. Right now, I'm late for breakfast!

Lisa :)