Haiti Mission Trip - Day 5

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Our last day in Haiti was the awesome!  The Lord has been so faithful to us this week and has truly blessed our time here.  The guys have loved every minute.

Once again, we started the day off with some work.  One crew finished painting the office roof while the other crew helped clear some storage space.  Right after the earthquake in 2010, several hundred boxes of seeds were donated to NVM.  However, they were already expired and after several attempts, none of them were germinating.  So, we helped get rid of them and freed up some storage space…which the boys loved throwing boxes into the fire pit!




This afternoon, we head to Oatoville which is a tent city with 200,000 people just north of Port-a-Prince.  After the earthquake, the Haiti government relocated thousands of people to camps outside the city and Oatoville is the largest one..  It was amazing to see so many people still living in tents.  NVM has started a church there and has seen tremendous favor is ministering to these people.

We showed up and there were already 200 kids waiting on us.  It was a blast to see their unending joy.  Once again, we pulled out our bag of "camp tricks" and had so much fun.  The laughter and smiles were abundant everywhere you looked.










By far, the highlight for me was hearing the guys talk tonight about how the Lord revealed Himself to them individually throughout the week.  We debrief every night, and it has been really fun to watch each one of the guys discover God's truth and how a few days in Haiti will change the way the live and look at the world.  My prayer was for them to gain a greater love for God's Kingdom and his people that he is drawing to Himself…and it was answered.   I'm so proud of them and they way they engaged and served the people of Haiti.  Thank you Lord!


Haiti Mission Trip - Day 4

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

It was another great day in Haiti for the Kanakuk crew.  Time is flying by and we are loving our time here serving NVM and the people of Haiti. 

Today was pretty similar to yesterday.  We spent the morning getting our work on with a little manual labor.  One crew finished painting the roof of the clinic while the other team spent several hours raking rocks so that we could build a new pathway for the school.  It was nice to work hard and see the finished results.



Today, one of the K-Kountry Chiefs from last summer, Nathan Pierre, and his sister joined us.  Their dad is the one who started NVM and they live here in Haiti.  It was so fun to have them with us all day.  


In the afternoon, we walked down the road to a nearby village called Chambrun to run "camp for a day." Once again, we broke out the crafts, the soccer ball, the jump rope, the water balloon toss, and of course we launched some more balloons.  We had about 100 kids and it was way more relaxed and calm.  The kids of Chambrun were so polite and had the times of their lives.








You can't come to Haiti with long hair and not expect the girls to do some work on it.  Once we broke out the hair rubber bands, the guys found out really quick how they do hair in Haiti.




Of course, we ended our time in Chambrun with a bang.  We did a funny skit, Pruitt shared his testimony, and we prayed for several kids that wanted to know Jesus.  It was a special time with this kids and a great way to end another day here in Haiti.




For our last full day, tomorrow we are off to one of the tent cities to run camp once again.  Should be awesome!

Haiti Mission Trip - Day 3

Monday, March 12, 2012

We hit the ground running today.  After breakfast, we went to work.  Half of the crew finished painting the roof of their new office while the rest of us finished up their prayer garden.  We got some paint on us, moved lots of rocks, and had a lot of fun.





Of course, you only have about 30 minutes of solid work with Jr.High kids.  The minute the kids hit the playground next to us, our guys dropped their shovels and were off to play with kids.  They love those kids!


After lunch, it was game time.  With only about 30 minutes to plan, we packed up balls, crafts, jump ropes, and about 300 water balloons.  They bussed our crew (along with 6 Haitian translators) to a nearby remote village where we ran "camp" for two hours for about 150 village kids.  We didn't know how many were going to show up…but they showed up….all 150 of them plus about 100 adults to just see what all the laughter and chaos was.  It was madness..but so fun!  We had a craft station, soccer station, jump rope station, relay races, but the big hit was the water balloon launcher.  Their minds were blown at how high we could shoot a water balloon in the sky and then try to catch it.  The love it.




Tonight after dinner, we got to hear Pastor Pierre share his testimony.  It was incredible to hear his story and how God has blessed him and his ministry to the Haitian people.

We also had some incredible discussion tonight with the guys.  It is so fun to watch the guys learning and the Lord using this experience to expand their view of His Kingdom and what is important in life.  What are we living for?  Things?  Money?  Happiness?  or Jesus?  They are catching it and it is fun to watch.

Haiti Mission Trip - Day 2

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Today was Sunday, so we started the day off at church.  It is always such a neat experience to worship the Lord next to the Haitian people in a different language.  I don't think the guys were used to a 3 hour church service, but it was a great experience for them.

At the service, they asked us to come up and sing.  Kind of threw us for a loop, but we pulled it off Kanakuk style…


After lunch, the church invited about 150 kids from a nearby village to come play at the NVM campus.  We played soccer, gave piggy back rides, and even broke out the water balloon launcher…which was a huge hit.  

At Church

Singing At Church

Getting Everybody Involved

Field Day




Hanging Out

Everybody is pretty wiped from today.  Tomorrow is going to be a full day.  We will be working here on campus in the morning and then heading to a nearby village to run "camp" for the kids.  Should be fun!

We Have Arrived

Saturday, March 10, 2012

We are here!  We made it safely to Haiti with almost no trouble.  Thank you Lord.  We stayed last night in Miami and then flew to Port-au-Prince early this morning.  We met the NVM staff at the airport and headed 13 miles (which took us 45 minutes) to the NVM campus in Chamburn.

We have spent most of the day getting settled, doing some orientation, and hanging out together.  We even managed to fit in a little basketball.

Waiting for the Airport Shuttle in Miami

On the bus in Haiti

Arriving at the NVM Campus


Receiving Instructions from NVM Staff

Getting Unpacked

Playing Hoops



Tomorrow is going to be a full day.  There seems to be a little discrepancy about the time change tonight.  Haiti has never aknowleded daylights savings time, but the President just announced that they would…but none of the Haiti people even know what it means since they have never done it.  All that to say…we have no idea what time church starts tomorrow.  We will worship with about 600 Haitians tomorrow morning here on the NVM Campus and then host a "field day" for all of the kids, so everybody is excited for what tomorrow holds.