No Better Way to Wrap a Great Week

Our time in Haiti is drawing to a fast close, but these last couple of days have been so great. On Saturday we had a unique experience in that we got to tour Port au Prince, with an exclusive escort by the Mayor of Port au Prince and his security detail. Colleen Stewart, one of our team members is connected to the Mayor through her sister-in-law, who is from Haiti. Colleen and the Mayor set it up for us to drive around the cities of Port au Prince, Delmas and Petionville. We were able to see the progress that is being made since the earthquake just 3 years ago.

From our tour, we returned to Merotte to have lunch and then clean and organize the things we used in VBS and the clinics. We were also able to set up a room with all the shoes and extra supplies we brought for the church to distribute to their members and those in the community who are in need.

This morning we got to do one of my most favorite parts of the week--worship at Christ the King. Much of the service is spoken in Creole so we don't always know the songs or what is being said, but we definitely know what is going on; they are praising the same God we love and serve. The leaders at Christ the King always ask me to share the message on Sunday and I can't really explain what a privilege it is to speak and share the Gospel. Among the highlights in worship were the songs sung by the choir and a couple of young men. It was extremely encouraging to our team to hear some of their songs being sung in English. When the choir sang our team members were busy taking pictures and capturing the moment on video. Another highlight was that our team sang in church as well. What was cool is that several of the church members took out their phones to capture us on video. It was encouraging to see them so moved by what we were doing that they wanted to get it on video.

After church several members of our team and many church members went on a prayer walk around the perimeter of the campus. We stopped 5 different times along the way to pray specifically for various aspects of the ministry at Christ the King. It was a great way to celebrate the ministry together. Chris Drews shared her vision to someday be able to bring an eye surgeon who can help people with their cataracts--a huge need here. One of the church members prayed for that, but then also prayed that God would make a way for Christ the King to open a hospital. Wow! There's a vision!

We wrapped up our goodbyes at Christ the King with many tears. So difficult to leave after building great relationships all week. Once we got back to the hotel, we had a little down time to enjoy the ocean and get cleaned up before dinner. Our dinner was served tonight in a private room by candlelight. It gave us an opportunity to be together as a team and to prepare our hearts to go home.

We have missed you, our senders and are anxious to share all of this ministry with you. If you live near the KC area, we would love to have you join us at Lord of Life next Sunday to hear all about it and to watch our video.

Thanks for your prayer support and all the ways you come alongside this ministry as our Senders! We love and value you a great deal!

Lisa :)
On behalf of Team Haiti 2014

What a Day!

Today was our final day of leading VBS, working on the wall construction, and running the eye, dental and medical clinics. Friday’s in the past have been the most difficult for our team because the desperation of the crowd escalates as they realize today is their last chance. After the clinic closed yesterday, I began praying that on our last day those who really needed to be seen in one of the clinics would in fact make it in somehow. As we allowed our last few in, I looked out among the people who did not get in and saw that they looked young and healthy. There were no elderly people outside.  There were no pregnant women. There were no parents begging us to look at their sick child. Everyone who wanted to see the Dentist and have their eyes checked were able to be seen. All I can say about that is God is good and He hears our prayers! I should have talked to God about that much earlier in the week, but I’m still learning!

Every patient that came through the clinics was able to hear the Gospel and receive a Bible if they didn’t already have one. We distributed nearly 400 Bibles and discovered that 5 people committed their lives to Christ! Awesome!

Phase one of the perimeter wall today was completed! The men worked very hard and got it all done. It was exciting to see. We are already preparing to complete the final phase next January!

The children had a great time at VBS! After the story, the children made picture frames. Earlier in the week, the VBS team took pictures of each child and printed them out. The kids love seeing their picture. Durony, the translator who worked with our VBS team asked the children if they all knew Jesus. Many of the children indicated they did not know Jesus as their Savior. Our VBS team surrounded them, laid hands on them and prayed over them. They prayed that the Holy Spirit would invade their hearts and that Jesus would show Himself to these children in amazing ways. Please continue to pray for their hearts to be open to knowing Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. 

At one point in the day I looked outside and saw our team and about 50 kids playing with the parachute that Bonnie and Amanda Krause received as a Christmas gift.  It was so cool to watch them. 

At the end of the day, our entire team made up of the construction workers, the cooks, the members from Christ the King who helped in the clinic, the translators, and the crew from Lord of Life (over 80 people) gathered in the church to celebrate what God is doing through the ministry of Christ the King. We gave financial gifts to those who helped and prayed for God to continue to pour out His Spirit among the community.  What was also great about it was that we were all wearing the same team shirt. Great visual of the partnership we have in this ministry. Not everyone is pictured, but we had a good part of the team is shown. It was a great way to finish!

Blessings on your weekend!

Lisa J

On behalf of Team Haiti 2014

Thursday's Thoughts from Haiti

Eyeglass Team

Today was an emotional day in the eyeglass clinic. The atmosphere was quite calm this morning--an answer to prayer. Around noon we weren't able to admit any new clients for about 2 hours because of crowd control issues. The desperation to get into the clinic was evident, and we are thankful to the staff and volunteers at Christ the King, Merotte, for keeping everyone safe and orderly. But for us, that meant seeing fewer clients than we could have. Even so, we saw over 80 people.

Each of us on the team felt emotional today as we encountered situations beyond our resources or control. There was the little girl with the cataract already, the boy who was blind in one eye because he had been hit in the eye with a rock, the girl who collapsed in pain while in line, and the teenager with cerebral palsy. In all of these situations, we felt privileged to share the love of Jesus with them, but our hearts were tugged in difficult ways.

Our team is learning the meaning of flexibility and is functioning beautifully in these circumstances. Our prayer for tomorrow is that God would have us to see who he wants us to see in the clinic. We know he will bring the right people.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

VBS Team

Today’s Bible lesson was the story of Joseph, specifically when he had to forgive his brothers for the wrongs they had done to him. Joseph’s great line to them was, “what you intended for harm, God meant for good.” He was able to see the bigger picture—that God had a plan for his life even when things were difficult. It was encouraging that the children already knew this Bible story.  We really enjoyed singing with the children today. We sang Father Abraham in English while the kids sang Papa Abraham in Creole. A little glimpse into singing around the throne in Heaven!

The children made cross necklaces, which they loved! It was very cool to see all the children wearing them all afternoon. My guess is that we will see them wearing them tomorrow as well as we wrap up our week around the theme, Team Jesus.

Our prayer is for the students. We pray that they would be able to recall the stories from this week especially during times of trouble or struggle. We pray they would know Jesus is always with them.

Construction

Mike Thomas and the bossman, Claudy measured the wall that will be finished by tomorrow afternoon. This week the men have built a wall that measures 390 feet long by 10 feet high. That’s quite a wall! We were able to figure out that we will need to raise $6,000.00 to complete the wall on next year’s trip!

We are praying that the people in the community and in the church would see this wall as God’s protection—that Christ the King is a safe place and that God is their refuge.

Lisa J

Desperate Times

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Medical Clinic

So many great things happened today at Christ the King, and yet there is a bit of a cloud as well. We were able to see 170 people in the Medical Clinic today. That’s a lot of people in 1 day! It was so awesome, and the ministry that happens is incredible. Christ the King is a church known in the community of Merotte for the way they reach out to the people to care for them and their children. The cloud in all of that is that we can’t reach them all. There are so many people absolutely desperate for a doctor to see them or their children or their aging parent. We had one lady bring her mother in the backseat of a truck. Her mother was unable to walk, but needed to see a Doctor. What a blessing to be able to prescribe some medicines and care for her needs.

One of the blessings for our medical clinic is that one of our Doctors is also a Dentist. He spent most of his day caring for the dental needs that came to us. One man even got one of his wisdom teeth pulled. It proved rather challenging for Dr. KyungHoon Chung and his assistant, Bre Engler but they were able to get all of the tooth as well as the roots out.

Eyeglass Clinic

We figured out a new system for intake today and were able to see many more clients than yesterday. Praise God! It was so neat to see the eyes of people light up when they could see well for the first time in a long time. This is especially heartening when we see it in older men and women. They have lived for such a long time without eye correction that they are surprised by what they can see.

Madame Nomil continued to meet with each patient today. Today she wore sunglasses that we had given her as she told each patient of Jesus’ love for them, gave them a Bible in Haitian Creole, and gave them a health kit.

Many members of our team got to hold babies today as their parents went through the clinic. Those are special moments for us as we multitask with testing, pointing, distributing, and fitting with babies in our arms.

For tomorrow, our prayer is that the clinics are covered in peace. There was quite a bit of agitation today, because people are so anxious to see a doctor or get glasses. We ask God to give us a more peaceful atmosphere and also for us and the clients to experience moments of joy as we smile and laugh and see together!

Construction Team

The progress on the perimeter wall is amazing to watch! I’m not sure how many feet were added to the wall, but it is a lot. It’s looking great. One of the things that was fun to watch was moving about 400 cement blocks from one end of the wall to where they were needed. It was quite a distance and took many men in a long line to get them moved. They were working very hard.

At lunch time our construction crew of 5 men sat down with a translator and several of the workers. Mike Thomas asked the men if they knew why we came every year to work alongside them. He explained that we come so that Christ the King will realize the vision they have of being a place where people will come and get to know Jesus as their Savior. One of the men said that the work days were great, but that the most important day of our visit is Sunday – the day we come together to worship. One of the men said that he would definitely be there to worship with us.

The team continues to pray for those on the construction team who might not now Jesus would be impacted by our witness.

VBS Team

The VBS team just continues to knock the ball out of the park! The lesson they did today for Team Jesus was of the servant girl who worked for Namaan. She took a big risk when she spoke to him about going to see Elijah the prophet instead of his own healer. Her boldness lead to her master being healed. The VBS team told the children how important it is to speak their faith with confidence knowing that they are serving the Lord.

One of the things the team is excited about is their translator. He is so very gifted in working with thechildren. He makes sure they are paying attention and really understanding what is being taught. He made up a Team Jesus cheer and gets the kids ready and excited to dig into the Word of God. He is a huge blessing to our efforts.

Since school is not in session, we have fewer students in VBS, but even with that we have been able to reach about 100 children each day.  They are praying to be able to reach as many children as possible in the next couple of days. 

More tomorrow!

Highlights and Prayers from Tuesday

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Our first full day of having the clinics open, a VBS lesson taught, and a day of laying block on the perimeter wall is in the books! It was a great day, and we are grateful in so many ways for the progress we continue to see in our partnership with the ministry of Christ the King. Check out these highlights from our teams:

VBS

• The theme the VBS Team is utilizing this week is Team Jesus with today's focus on Caleb and Joshua. The children made t-shirts that said, "Ekip Jezia", which means, Team Jesus. They added a cross to the front of the t-shirt design and had the children write their favorite number on the back. It was very cool to see the children wearing their shirts with pride.
  
• When we arrived at Christ the King this morning, we learned that the children were not in session this week. They aren't in school because they observed the visit of the Kings--Epiphany! This required our VBS team to exercise one of our foundations--flexibility! The team pulled together and did a great job with the children who were there.
• A blessing of Christ the King school not being in session is that we were able to invite all of the kids who live in the area to join in hearing the story and making t-shirts. An added bonus to be sure! 
• The prayer of the VBS team is for their continued flexibility, for smooth flow, for continued energy and for their team to present God's Word on the children's level as they share God's love with them. 

Eyeglass Team

• This team started the journey as novices who were a little apprehensive. After one full day of operations they are now confident and experienced.
• They are especially grateful for being able to help each other out, even on other teams. 
• The prayer for the eyeglass team is for Madame Nomil, a member of Christ the King. She shares the Gospel and prays with each patient, and was able to receive a pair of eyeglasses today to her great delight. 

Construction Team

• The Construction team highlights were all the progress on the wall and the flexibility and support from each member of the team. They built about 200 feet of wall. 
• The prayer for the construction team is for he men's (hired workers) salvation and the spirituality and leadership in that area. 
• They are also praying for their own strength and energy. 

Medical Team

• The medical team is grateful that this clinic has been one of the most efficient and able to see so many patients (about 140 people). 
• They were able to help a couple of mother's hear their unborn baby's heartbeats. 
• One of the medical team members is dentist. He saw a patient today who had an abscess. He was able to extract the 2 affected teeth and offer a great deal of relief. 
• The prayer from this team is for God's continued healing to happen in the lives of their patients. 

We were not able to get a picture posted from the Eyeglass team so we will allow them 2 photos in tomorrow's blog. 

Blessings! Stay warm!

Relationships!

Yesterday 39 blurry-eyed "go-ers" met at the Kansas City airport at 5:15. We drove to the airport in the wind and snow wondering if our flights would be running on time. We had a few minor delays but it was obvious God was preparing the way for our team. We arrived in Miami, had time to enjoy dinner and Small Group time before calling it a night.

Our way to Haiti was also uneventful with customs being a breeze. We arrived in Merotte to a crowd of children and church leaders anxiously awaiting our arrival. The reunions with friends is sweet. It makes me anxious for the reunion that awaits us in heaven! A special joy for me was introducing my sister Julie to all of my friends here. One of the young adults we've worked with since she was a jr. High student, mistook Julie for my mother! You can imagine my delight and the fun I've had with that.

Our afternoon was spent setting up the Eyeglass Clinic and the medical clinic. The VBS team worked on their Bible story for tomorrow and the construction team assessed the work they would begin on the perimeter wall.

When we got to Wahoo Bay our team was complete. Our 40th team member, Jodie Amschler was already here and waiting for us. We also discovered that our team was growing by 6 people. Part of the team from Beautiful Savior in Lees Summit (the church we trained last year) missed their flight and can't get home now until Thursday. For the next two days we will be able to incorporate them in the ministry at Christ the King.

We are excited about the relationships we are making with one another. We are also thrilled with the way God continues to strengthen our relationship with the leaders at Christ the King, and we are anticipating great new relationships we will make with the Haitian people.

More tomorrow with some highlights and prayer needs from each of our teams. As I wrap up this blog, the sound of people laughing as they play cards and connect with one another is making me smile from ear to ear!

Lisa
On behalf of Team Haiti 2014