Day Five - Beauty with Brokenness

Day 5 has been a long day. It began around 5:30am when my alarm reminded me of how tired I was and how much I needed coffee. Coffee would soon be made, thanks to Ms. Allison. It would also be quickly consumed as we left for Church on the Rock just before 6am for a morning worship service.

As we left the guesthouse, the streets, just like me, were slowly awakening. As usual, it was a beautiful morning, breezy, cool, refreshing. There were a few scattered clouds strolling leisurely through the sky. There were a few people moving about, some light traffic, but mostly calm. We made our way to the church service and were greeted with smiling worshipers, good music, and a wonderful time preparing ourselves for the day. We would need it. It’s been a long day.

Day 5 has been a hard day. We delivered water for the second time this week to Cite Soleil. It’s hot; water is heavy; children need to be loved and held. All of that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion. Pair that with our afternoon trip to the Home for Sick & Dying Children, and you get to have your body and soul torn at the seams. Haiti has a way of doing that to you. There is a such a mingling of beauty with brokenness, of strength with weakness, of happiness with sorrow. From moment to moment, it seems that we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).

Day 5 has been a good day. Our team sang the children’s song This is the Day as we sat down to eat breakfast this morning. This line is significant, “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” No matter how long or how difficult the day may be, it is the Lord’s day, and the Lord is good. I will choose to rejoice in Him even when there are things I cannot understand. Today has been long and hard, but it has also been good. I am grateful that His grace is sufficient for every kind of day.

God bless, 

Jacob

Day Four - All About Love

Hi, it’s Emily. Today after breakfast we went to Deux Mains, a fashion organization whose purpose is to create jobs. They make shoes and bags out of upcycled tires. In August they moved into a new factory and hired 12 new employees. 

After touring that facility, we went to Grace Village and toured there too. We got to learn how their school works and walk through their feeding facility. 

Then, finally, we went to Dios, an orphanage for special needs children. There we played with bubbles, played soccer, jumped rope, and took pictures of the children and taped them on foam crosses. Then we sang with the kids and our driver, Jonas, helped us sing some songs in Creole. We had so much fun worshipping with the kids and it was time to leave way too soon. After a quick tour of the houses, we left and returned to the guest house. After dinner tonight, all three teams gathered for a group worship session and Brother Jacob played the guitar and we all sang some songs. That was a great end to a great day. 

God's love was displayed everywhere today-through the job creation at Deux Mains, the support and hope at Grace Village, and the joy and happiness of the children and Dios. I pray that God continues to show His love for us throughout the remainder of the week and keeps us safe during the rest of our activities. 

Day Three - Cite Soleil

Words of the Day…Speechless, Honest, Reunited, Sweet, Progress, Future, Complex, Present

Hello from Angela and Krista!  Today was our first Water Truck Day in Haiti.  It was Krista’s first Water Truck Day ever and visit to Cite Soleil (the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere).  Healing Haiti is the only organization that is delivering water bucket-by-bucket for free.  Many people in Cite Soleil have to walk for many blocks, 2, 6, even 12 or more to get a bucket of clean water. In Cite Soleil if you drill a well, you hit salt water, so there is no access to clean water. People in Cite Soliel live on less than a $1 a day.  Healing Haiti delivers 3 loads of water by truck per day, six days a week, 52 weeks per year. 

Being my (Krista’s) first time in Cite Soleil, I came with an open mind of what I would experience. I expected myself to be very emotional, but I was surprised to find myself joyful because the children I saw today were so full of joy and happiness.  I am still finding it hard to put into words the experience of the day.  It is hard to find the right words that would do justice to all the sights that I saw, sounds that I heard, smells that smelled, touches that I felt, emotions that are in my heart. That is all I know right now, but in time I know I will be able to express more clearly all details of this hard and beautiful place that has forever made a mark on my heart.

Driving back into Cite Soleil this year I (Angela) felt the same overwhelming magnitude of the poverty that I felt the very first time that I laid eyes on this place.  It takes my breath away every time to see the endless rows of tin houses and undressed children running after the tap tap.  But when we got to Hope Church (Healing Haiti’s church/school) in the middle of Cite Soleil this year, so much had changed since last year.  There was a brand new clinic completely up and running that was barely in the beginning stages of construction last year when we were here.  They are treating anywhere from 75-100 patients/day.  There is a new sewing pod that is providing jobs for the women of Cite Soleil.  We got to tour a new innovation lab that is bringing the latest in learning and technology to the children in Cite Soleil. Everywhere we looked we saw change and progress and hope.  One of our leaders made the comment that some day we will come back to deliver water and there will be no more children running in the streets of Cite Soleil because they will all be in school.  What a beautiful thought!  I hope I am there to see that day! 

Tomorrow we head to Rebuild Globally, Grace Village to see their new Innovation Lab, and to Dios Special Needs Orphanage to love on some sweet children!  Pray for us and we continue our travels.

Krista and Angela