Our last day at the beach was my favorite beach time! We went with our normal arsenal of equipment - soccer balls, footballs, and Frisbees. Also, in our van was some leftover VBS supplies that we planned to donate to the church. Upon getting to the beach though we decided to break out some of the leftover books from VBS and let the kids draw and color. It was incredible to see the kids stop playing with the athletic equipment and come over to sit in the sand with us and draw. A grown man who was riding his motorcycle stopped and drew with us for at least 30 minutes. When he completed his drawing, he showed it around to all of us and we could see how proud he was to have created something of his own.
My favorite part of this beach day was when one of the meanest boys from our time in Haiti joined us to color. This boy had injured different people throughout the week and he appeared to have some severe anger issues: he had chucked a football at Brandi’s head, tried to break my finger, and he had even been involved in a fight at VBS the day before. I tried to reach out to this boy and try to find something good amongst the bad. Maille-Maille, our translator, asked him what his name was. We discovered his name was Stevenson and I showed him how to write it down. He had never written his name down before and therefore he didn’t know how to spell it. (I hope I showed him the correct spelling!). After realizing that names could be written down, he asked me how to write down everyone else’s name on the beach. It was amazing to see his calm demeanor! We spent some time playing tic tac toe in the sand together and he was proud each time he won.
At the end of this beach day we decided to let this boy be one of the select few to receive a Frisbee. Later, we talked in the van about how we loved to see him learning and not being so competitive. We’ll never know if he has been to school. We’ll never know if he has parents. We’ll never know what makes him so angry. However, we do know that he has a loving side and we know his name is Stevenson.
Sorry we took a day off from blogging. We joked about
blaming our lapse on a spotty internet connection, but thou shalt not lie,
right?
We've been having too much fun and togetherness to slow
down to write something.
The last two days have been phenomenal. We've kept the
same schedule of beach soccer in the morning and VBS at the church in the
afternoon.
We've tried to mix it up with the kids to make it fun and
different each day. The girls at the beach went crazy (in a good way) when we
brought out the nail polish. There's a mess of little girls running around
Jacmel with fab pink manicures. One of our team members had the brilliant idea
of bringing embroidery thread for making friendship bracelets, and today the
kids took breaks between soccer and frisbee games to make them. Even the guys
loved them; I spent a good 20 minutes this morning holding thread while a
teenage boy concentrated hard on making his red-and-white bracelet. Remember
those awesome multi-colored parachutes from P.E. class? It was a hit with the
kids at VBS this afternoon. I hope we caught it on video to share with you,
because it was wild.
Today was our last day of VBS. Due to some travel issues
that came up, we're unable to teach the fourth day as planned. Our talented
lesson planners, Molly and LetaAnn, did a bit of rewriting to leave the kids on
a high note, and the new lesson went unbelievably well. They really seemed to
understand what we were trying to tell them how to share, pray, help, and tell
their neighbor about Jesus. We ended the lesson by sharing the Easter story and
salvation with the Evangicube. We initially thought the cube was cheesy, but
the Haitian kids have loved them. The simple pictures are universal.
Tonight we went to a revival service at the church. We
sang a few songs, which was fun, and Shannon said a few words about how there
is no language barrier when Christians come together in worship. I recognized a
few hymns they sang, but we still couldn't understand what they were saying.
Still, the worship was powerful. I couldn't help myself from turning around in
my seat to watch the church members sing. It was beautiful to see their love
for God on their faces and to hear it from their lips.
We want to tell you about our first day in Jacmel! This morning, we went to the beach and played with the "beach kids." Most of these "kids" don't have the opportunity to attend school because they cannot afford the fees that are required. These children appeared when we got there and were ready to play! As the number of kids grew, starting with 5 and growing to around 40, we never saw any parents and some of the kids were running around in their underwear. On the beach (which is littered and rocky) we played soccer, (big kid team and little kid team), football, and frisbee. We were also able to introduce them to an American football. They saw the football and attempted to bounce it because they didn't know how else it could be used. The temperatures were around 90 degrees and as we sweated profusely on the beach we eyed the cool Caribbean Sea. In an effort to cool off, we started playing tag near the water's edge which eventually led into a game of the kids tackling us, tagging us, and asking for piggyback rides. We had a great time and once we were covered from head to toe in sand, we headed back to our hotel to shower and prep for VBS.
As we were prepping, our leader received a phone call from the pastor at the church that our VBS was located within. When asked how many kids were there, his response was, "You can't even imagine! I am entertaining them now by singing." We got to the church and the kids filled the whole back section, numbering around 70. It was interesting to teach a lesson through translators. Our translators Elmye and Meshak were really wonderful with leading the kids in songs and helping us to organize them. Things turned out well and we already have a more active game plan for tomorrow's lesson.
Of the experiences we have had so far, the most striking difference can be seen in the kids' "survival mode." In our debrief session tonight we discussed how the children aren't shy about asking for things such as our watches, sunglasses, etc., even such basic things as water. We can see their desire for basic needs and wants and that they struggle to obtain the things that we more than take for granted. How can these children's parents provide for their basic needs when they can't afford school and 85% of the country is unemployed?
Elmye, our translator, said it best over lunch: "Some people see our country as so poor. We are poor and we might not have all the same opportunities as other countries but I know we really aren't poor. In fact, because of Jesus, I am rich."
Our trip to Haiti started with quite an eventful travel experience speckled with fun and not so fun. After leaving 12 Stone at 04:10am we made it to our first gate around 06:30. Then, we landed in Miami at 10:00 and enjoyed our 4 hour layover by meeting some Haitians at the gate that were kind enough to help us translate words for our VBS lessons. Once we boarded our flight at 13:30, we were geared up and ready for Jacmel! Or so we thought. Due to some last minute mechanical adjustments, paper work processing and a shift in the tailwinds, our wheels finally left the Miami ground at 17:00. Good thing the plane was full of other mission groups, teams anywhere from Alabama to Minnesota, or American Airlines would have had some more issues to deal with (on top of all the luggage we witness dropping on the tarmac). We then landed in Haiti at 18:30. Here we met the kind and gracious Kerry (our World Hope Connection who happens to be a 12 stoner as well). She showed us to our bus where we experienced our first 'change in plans'. Since we got in so late, and we didn't want to battle the Saturday night traffic to Jacmel, Tony (World Hope Coordinator) was generous enough to allow us to spend the night in his house. Writing about the kindness of Tony and his story is enough to fill up a whole other blog post. He suggested we go in to town and eat. So we unpacked our bags, and then went into the town of Pigeonville (Port Au Prince suburb) to grab some Haitian grub. With tummies full and exhaustation from traveling, we headed home, debriefed, and went to bed.
- Sam/Molly
Our trip to Haiti started out with little to no sleep and an early flight. After leaving the church we had an easy trip until we got to Miami. We had a 4 hour layover in Miami where we were able to interact with some awesome people. A group of Haitians were listening to music and helped us translate some of the stuff for VBS. After the layover we boarded the plane, but ended up sitting in the plane for about 2 1/2 hours before we were able to take off. Once we finally got in the air, I was able to have a conversation with a man who played soccer for Haiti back in 1989. He told me something that really has ressonated with me so far, " Our country is very beautiful despite what the media has made it out to be. Not necessarily because of the buildings and material things but because we are beautiful people." He also told me that Jacmel was one of the most beautiful places in Haiti. The Haitian people are very hospitipal and very welcoming. Tony from World Hope opened his home to us and also took us out for a local dinner because we couldn't make to to Jacmel last night due to the delay. Today we are finally headed to our destination in Jacmel. I'm excited to see what God has in store for all of us on this trip.
Brandi
Beauty is a word that really sticks out to me when thinking about our first glimpse of Haiti. Our first day of VBS will focus on "beauty" and how God made EVERYTHING and made it purposefully and beautifully. When we were interacting with Hatians on the airport and on the plane, that was something they expressed. Haiti is a beautiful country with so much beauty within. As we were flying over and landing, I knew they were right. Haiti is beautiful. Then, you get closer and closer and see their struggles, which is hard to see. However, there is so much heart and love within Haiti, and that is comforting. I am so excited for what is to come and to see more of the love and beauty within Haiti and to share my heart and love for Jesus with the Haitians.
LetaAnn
There are a lot of thoughts running through my mind right now, most I'm unable to put into words. I can say that it has finally hit home what Ryan said at the All-mission team gathering that missions are not about me and what I can do. Seeing this life I call impoverished- crumbling buildings, no electricity, dirty water- there is nothing I can do. I could sell everything I own tomorrow and that little bit of money wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket of need. It's only God that can make a change, and because he's had this plan since creation, I can do nothing but come along for the ride. That's why it doesn't matter we're only here for one week. God and his work is always here changing people's lives and hearts.
-Laura
God forgot to send our team the memo to wear BRIGHT colored shirts that say HAITI on the front!!! I miss my iPhone, the shower and the sound of the toilet flushing.
~Hannah
gotta go! The bus is here to pick us up for Jacmel! -Lauren
Wow! It’s already time to post our last blog. Wednesday we
had a small group with the youth and focused on why we pray and how they are
the light in Jacmel. The small group was very cool because we really got to
know all of the youth on a more intimate level.Yesterday was our last day with the kids and to end the week we
performed a skit to a song by Lifehouse called “Everything.” The skit begins
with God bringing a girl to life and showing her his love and beauty. Soon
after spending time with God she becomes distracted by things such as
boyfriends, greed, addiction, negative body image, and shame. At the climax of
the song she decides to fight back against all that has caused her to fall in
an effort to reach the safe-haven of the Lords arms. The skit ends with the
Lord rescuing her from all of the bad things that were trying to keep her from
him. The point of the skit was to show the youth at the church that on the path
of growth, darkness is there and they will surely struggle, but Jesus can and
WILL always come to rescue them!
Today
is Friday. Kerry, our guide and connection to WHI, has been showing us around
Port-Au-Prince. We’ve been to The View, which is this incredible spot up in the
mountains where we can see all of Port-Au-Prince. We also went to the Baptist
mission which was established here in Haiti in the 1940’s by the first Baptist
missionaries to come to Haiti. They’ve since built a school, a church, a
hospital, and a place to train locals on how to work with the land and other
trades. There is a big difference between Jacmel and Port-Au-Prince. Jacmel is
a small town where everyone is, for the most part, living in the same level of
poverty as their neighbors. Here in Port-Au-Prince there are government
buildings and homes with foundations right across the street from tent cities; communities
of tents built to house homeless people after the earthquakes.Don’t be mistaken, there are tent cities in
Jacmel, but the stark differences of housing and income levels that exist in
Port-Au-Prince certainly aren’t as prevalent in Jacmel.
The
time we’ve had here is invaluable. This trip has certainly made a lasting
impact on our hearts. The people, sounds, smells, and images of Haiti will
never be forgotten.
We had an awesome day with youth at the Wesleyan church
today. We talked about when Christians
first started meeting in homes in small groups.
Making the connection to John Wesley and the Wesleyan church, we were
ready to dive into our version of 12Stone’s Small Group experience. Being with the youth these past days everyone
was now more open and ready to share, a big accomplishment for a generally
quiet and shy group of young people. We
took this opportunity to talk about prayer; why we pray, when and where we
pray, and then how we pray. As a team we
are going to exchange prayer requests with each other tomorrow. The 12Stone team and the youth of the church
have agreed to pray for each other over the next 90 days. We will use emails to update each other on
how we are all doing. In a way, we will
be extending our trip to Haiti for another 90 days.
Ryan
Hello all! I am doing well and enjoying the
conversations that we have had with locals about their prayer life. They asked
questions, which in my opinion means that they are learning and are concerned
with doing it right. Every day I feel that we are getting to make more and more
meaningful relationships with the locals. I look forward to seeing the effects
and fruits of our labor with them. Samatise and Jephte and two of my favorite
boys that we have met. They are fun to play around with and Jephte is eager to
learn and share Christ’s story with the others on the beach. I hope the he
continues to go with his faith.
Danielle
No Haitian “Hello’s”
Wayne
It was awesome to see the youth be so open with their
questions about prayer this morning.
This was said to be a very quiet and shy group of young men and
women. They were very open with us and
asked some great questions. Wednesday is
my normal Small Group night, so I had a great day in Small Group today (just
happen to be in Haiti this week). I’m
excited to see how our prayer “challenge” goes over the next 90 days.
Derek
We had a great day again speaking with the youth and
equipping them to share the gospel with their community. Small group in Haiti
was a big success and brought forth many questions from the people of Haiti on
the topic of prayer. Tonight is going to entail us presenting 2 songs to the church.
Yikes!
Chrissy
The days that I spend in Haiti I absolutely enjoy
everything about this country! I can’t wait to return to Georgia but I love
this break from everything. It is a great refreshing week!
God bless!
Blondine
I’m still enjoying being in Haiti! I love being
able to build a relationship with all of the youth that I have encountered. I’m
just sad that this will soon be coming to end, but I know God has great things
in store for all of these youth!
Will
Today was a great day! Our team really made great
progress with youth at church today. We prayed over one of the youth today
during our meeting with them. That was awesome! We are one day away from doing
our grand finale skit. Hopefully it will speak great meaning to the people of
the Wesleyan church!
12Stone just sent me their first Haiti
team of 2012 and I am SO excited! I’ve pretty much used the last 7 months as a
way to prepare for this week and the following two.
Saturday we picked them up from the
airport, safe and sound, and made the drive out to Jacmel. It took us quite
awhile as traffic was absolutely HORRIBLE… but, we made it.
Today, we ate a wonderful breakfast
and then walked through the doors of a very joyful church. Wayne got to share a
message to the congregation. Pastors here love having guest speakers. After
that, we said goodbye to the church and went back to the hotel to rest for a
few hours. After all, the beach requires a lot of energy ;) We ate spicy
fish on the beach, swam, played soccer, and even got some beach volleyball in
with the locals.
Everyone is in good spirits and good
health. Please pray for us as we begin our first day of ministry
tomorrow.
3.13.2012
From
the team
Day 1
“I Sing Because I’m Happy”
Our first day
in Haiti was a great experience. We all found out what it means to be on
“Haitian time”. Going to church in the morning was an eye-opening experience.
We heard the girls sing a beautiful song with words “I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free”. After some time of worship the pastor asked Wayne to
give a sermon. Wayne did a wonderful job of bringing the reason why we are here
and the reason how 12 Stone got its name together in a great sermon. After
church we went to the beach and had some local cuisine and some fun time in the
water. We drove home for a wonderful dinner that the hotel prepared for us and
some time to talk about what we learned.
Ryan
I learned
many things throughout the days that we have been here. The children are eager
to learn but a little shy about sharing their faith with others. The group has
had some great ideas for skits and situations that help them. The envangibands
and cubes have worked well and they have retained a good amount of the
knowledge but the true challenge is getting them to share it with the other
people. I think that if we could find a bridge between them and those who they
consider “the bad boys” or the one they are told not to associate we could
really help the community grow in followers. I’m excited to see how they
grow during this week.
Danielle
It’s been
neat experiencing the culture and getting a feel for the type of community that
exists in Jacmel, Haiti. It’s certainly a beautiful place but what really makes
Jacmel beautiful are the people that live here. When there are traffic jams
strangers stop to help strangers, when we were playing n the beach a girl came
and played with my hair. The people here, from what I’ve seen, are kind people.
We’re
staying at a hotel; the women on staff here are really nice and the rooftop
where we have our daily debriefs has the most incredible view with mountains on
one side of the hotel and palm trees on the other. Last night, however, I ran
across something that I’m not too fond of. A special friend was waiting for me
in my bed after debrief, a very large, very fast tan/brown spider had taken up
residence on top of my blanket! Blondine squished it for me but needless to say
it was challenging falling asleep and staying asleep last night know what
crawls around in the dark here! Things like this along with mile high palm
trees, mountains that flow straight into the ocean, and colorful buildings
amidst burning trash, pollution, the demolition left behind form the
earthquake, and people who are impoverished by their lack of freedom and
compassion from years of a corrupt government create such an enchanting,
strange place.
It’s
cool to see what God has been doing in these people before we arrived, how he’s
impacting them now, and what he will do with Haiti after our team is gone.
Please pray for not only the spiritual well being of Haiti but the political
well being of Haiti as well. There are huge changes that need to be made and
challenges to be overcome in this country... much, much bigger than anything
any group or mission team could ever be capable of fixing or helping. But God
is capable and when the people of Haiti learn to seek him whole heartedly then
they will certainly find him. He is redeemer and rescuer and I pray that he
would continue to reveal himself in this way to the people of Haiti.
Wayne
A smile
translates to smile no matter what the language, no matter what the country, no
matter what the color of your skin. It’s the universal communication
vehicle that always works. The wonderful people of Haiti are certainly no
exception to this rule. This is a wonderful reminder to us that we
are all God’s children. Something perhaps many of us forget all too often
back home in the States. So if I were to send one message back to you
reading this blog, it would be to pray that God remind us, daily if
necessary, when we lose sight of the family we all belong too – His
family.
Will
This is not
the Caribbean you see on tv. When I first arrived in Haiti, I quickly saw why
most Cruise ships do not port in Haiti. Even though Haiti may not seem great at
first, I saw the inner beauty of this country through their people. The people
of Haiti are very helpful to others and are hard workers. I can see through
coming here that God has a plan for this island and even though things might
not be great right now progress is being made every day. Our leader Kerry told
us you have to pay to go to school here and it is expensive. However this year
the new president of Haiti paid for 903,000 children to go to school this year.
That shows that the country is making progress for the future and how God is
doing work in Haiti.
Derek
The one
thing that has stuck out to me the most is the kindness and sincerity of the
Haitian people. From common courtesy, to genuine happiness to see you, the
people of this country have welcomed up with open arms. We are focusing on
teaching the students how to evangelize, and the speed in which they absorb the
information is remarkable. We did our initial message to them on Monday and
today they were able to get up in front of their peers and recite it all back
to us! Very encouraged with the progress so far, and can’t wait to see what the
rest of the week brings!
Chrissy
I absolutely
adore Haiti! All of the people are very genuine and friendly. The food is
delicious and the scenery is beautiful. Everywhere you go in Haiti there is
always a community oriented feel to the people and place. The youth that we are
working with are sweet and very understanding to the sharing of the gospel. It
is so joyous to see the look of understanding on these kids’ faces. I am
enjoying every moment I am spending with the youth. I thank my Heavenly Father
and 12stone for giving me this opportunity to share my knowledge of the faith
and to love these children! J
Prayer requests
Pray for God
to work through us to help the youth of Haiti to better understand how to
spread the Gospel – this is the next generation of Haiti.
Blondine
Home! This is
the first thing that I can think of when I think about being in Haiti.
Even though this is my first trip to Haiti, I feel completely at home.
Being of Haitian descent I knew for sure that I wouldn’t struggle too much with
the language aspect, but I was somewhat afraid that I would be uncomfortable
interacting with other people. God has broken me of those fears, and has
replaced anxiety with peace and joy! I honestly can say that I love the
interaction I get to have with all of the youths, and all of the different
people I encounter. It’s as if the 20 years that I have been living on
this earth as a Haitian-American has prepared me for this moment. I am just
beginning to grasp that God cares so much about the little details of our
lives, and foreknew that this week would occur. I am enjoying being home!
Prayer requests
Please pray that
God will begin to transform the youth so that they aren’t satisfied with just
knowing about God, but will constantly seek Him and Truth. In addition, That
God will begin to birth a desire in them to want to share the Gospel joyfully
and unashamedly!
