Golden ~Eye~

We are sitting in the Haitian airport waiting to board. Once again
the airport was a breeze. Praise God for His provision.

Well, this morning it took an act of congress to wake the teenagers
up! (honestly, all of us!). God has been doing some amazing work in
our hearts and He continues to work through us even though we are
tired. We look forward to seeing all of on Sunday.

You never know what’s going to happen in Haiti. This morning started
off like many others until Shelley said, “Sue, come with me. I need
you at the orphanage.”. There I met one month old Danielle she had
just arrived with her mom & grandmother. She only weighs 5lbs and was
struck by her dad last night as he went after her mom. As I took the
baby from her mother I wasn’t sure she was breathing. I prayed to God
that He would not let this child die in my arms. I have spent the day
feeding her; changing her; listening to her cry (I have never been so
happy to hear a baby cry). Please pray that Danielle and her mom will
grow stronger while they are at the orphanage and that it will be safe
to return home. Life is fragile and precious, don’t take it for
granted.
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We are sitting in the Port Au Prince airport right now and our flight is delayed. We are all very tired and excited to come home. The last thing we did today was cook an american lunch for the Hatians, hamburgers and pasta salad. I don’t think they knew what a hamburger was. They looked at it funny and watched how we ate it before they did. Cooking a lunch in a small village in a third world country is a bit tricky. The cleanliness certainly isn’t up to our standards. Between the flies and dirty water we used to clean with I think some of us were a little worried about the safety of the food. However we felt it was important to serve and share a meal with our brothers and sisters we grew so close to this week. I know that God was glorified as we sang songs of worship and ate food cooked in dirty conditions together, and I know He is bigger than germs and bacteria. The spirit of the Lord was present at the clinic today and the safest place to be is in God’s will. It took quite a while to say goodbye, I had to crack the whip to get people on the truck and many people from the village ran after the truick waving and blowing kisses as we drove away. It was a quiet ride to the airport as we pondered what we experienced together. In just a few hours we will be back in the states and we will come face to face with affluence and self centeredness we have not seen in 10 days. It will take a while to adjust, please allow your family members time to settle back in, I won’t say give them time to get back to normal because I know they will never be the same after spending this much time with the beautiful people of Haiti. We will see you all soon, thank you for making this trip possible for all of us. Your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed. God Bless.

Jeremiah
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We can’t believe it’s Friday! This week has gone by very quickly.
The days have been long and extremely busy – exhausting and exciting
at the same time. On Wednesday, we had a guest speaker. Noah came to
tell us his story; how God made a crazy request of him and how he was
obedient to the call. We are thankful that we were called to Haiti
and that we answered the call.

We are looking forward to visiting with the PID group tomorrow morning
and then off to the beach for some rest and relaxation. Pray we do
get some rest this weekend so we’ll be ready for another week with the
kids. They have so much energy!

Today was the last day of the childrens program and the closing ceremony was amazing. The kids sang amazing grace to us in english and we all cried. Things then turned crazy as we started to serve lunch. The food was not ready on time and we had to hold off 100 hungry kids. We would open the gate and let one in at a time and then have to close the gate in the faces of kids screaming for food and water. It was a bit frustrating but I think it was more sad to realize that they don’t understand wait five minutes because they are trained to find there next meal and they think of nothing else. At this point we are emotionaly and physicaly exhausted. Tomorrow we will hopefully meet up with the heartline trip and share some stories then in the afternoon we will take a ride up into the mountains and spend some time relaxing. it has been a very productive trip and we thank you for your support and prayers. I will try to continue to update you all but bedtime comes earlier every night.

Jeremiah
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Today was the most intense heat I have ever experienced. We all survived by drinking large amounts of water and taking many breaks. The childrens program is running smoothly now and it is a common sight to see one of our people holding a sleeping child or playing slapjack with a huge crowd around them. I think by this time everybody has had to breakdown and cry at least once. I had one of those moments today as we continued digging a hole for a 10 family latrine, 10′x20′ 7 feet deep. Several locals told us they would help us dig all morning for some water. Can you even imagine? We had them work with us and we had a blast digging and singing Michael Jackson songs which they all knew every word to. In the end they left with more than a glass of water, they left with our sunglasses, t-shirts and anything else we could give them. We made sure they knew that we didn’t give them the stuff because they worked but because we were friends. I think that the theme of the day was connections. By now the language barrier is gone and we all work smoothly together. The Holy Spirit overcomes all obstacles in the way of advancing the kingdom of God. Several of our men built benches for the clinic with the Haitian carpenters and it was amazing to see them work seamlessly together without talking at all. Off to bed as we are all drained from the heat of the day and the emotion we all felt. Goodnight and God Bless.

Jeremiah
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Today was our first day working in the village of Blanchard. Our original plans changed somewhat but you have to be flexible in Haiti as nothing is certain. Half of us made cement blocks and dug a ditch for a latrine and half of us put on a childrens program similar to our vbs. We started the day by singing How great thou art with the haitians we would be working with today, us in english and them in creole at the same time. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when we realized that our god does not hear different languages just the sweet sound of the praises of his people. The greatest surprise today was how much time we had to spend with the children. I know I personaly had to find a quiet place from time to time to keep it together which is not easy when a child of four or five crawls into your lap and whispers in your ear in broken english that he needs something to eat because he is so hungry. Or what do you say when a little girl begs you for a glass of water but if you give her one you are su e a riot will start because everyone is thirsty. One may ask what can so few do or how can they change the situation and my response is that it is not our job to change the situation. It is our job to be obedient to the word of God and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the wanderer. The Lord Almighty himself will change the situation we just get the privilege to be a part of His great work. I couldn’t be prouder to be working along side such an amazing group from our church, as we ate dinner I looked around the table and recalled watching them today and I know I truly saw Jesus as they ministered to those in need. My prayer is that as you read these updates it will not only be about those of us in Haiti but that you would have a sense of God’s calling in your life to serve Him and that you don’t need to be in Haiti to do that. God requires us to walk humbly with Him where ever we are. I look forward to sharing so many stories when we return home.

Jeremiah

Yesterday we went to Port Au Prince Christian Fellowship where we were
challenged to question our motives for coming to Haiti. (interesting
timing I thought!). Fortunately for us it was in English. Church was
packed-standing room only, two thirds of the people were Haitian. It
was truly a rocking morning!

You would have been proud of your loved ones today. They jumped right
in with both feet. We had 70 kids for six hours of continuous
activities; Bible stories, crafts, wild worship and much more.

Sue, Evan and Kip had the wonderful job of extracting a toy
truck,bracelet, and bicycle handle bar from a toilet. Other than that
things were running fine!

It was a VERY windy day today and I mention this just in case the
weather channel reported it. We are fine and are enjoying the
heavenly breezes.

All in all, it was a great day in Haiti!
Love ya!

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We attended a Haitian church this morning in a small village, the service lasted for 2.5 hours. It was very hot and we barely understood anything but it warmed our hearts to see how much they enjoyed having us with them. We then rode through the countryside in the tap tap, there were many moments of silence as we saw things we couldn’t really comprehend. It is hard to describe the smell of hundreds of yards of burning trash or the sight of young children bathing in open sewers on the side of the road. We spent the afternoon swimming in the crystal blue waters of the wahoo bay beach club, a place for the wealthy of Haiti. We all felt a sense of discomfort enjoying such pleasure when so close people were struggling to find food for today. I think this was a valuable thing for us to do to help us wrestle with the injustice of a place like Haiti. Tomorrow when we start working with people who eat 4-5 times a week I hope the memories of people frloicking on white sandy beaches will be fresh in our minds. I hope this will stir a righteous anger within us, I hope it will cause us a deep desire to share about a hope that is not from this world, to share about a savior who loves us and offers us so much more than a cushy, safe, clean life. He offers us something that hunger and sickness cannot overshadow, a light that darkness hides from. What a humbling experience to see someone worship with enthusiasm I never display in the midst of such chaos and struggle. My hope is that in the next week our perspective will chang and our “needs” will be stripped down to the point where we realize all we need is Gods grace. Amazing things can happen with a large group of people with an unquenchable fire for God in their hearts.
Everyone is doing fine with the exception of a little too much sun. Thank you for your prayers and thank you Jesus for your love and mercy.
More tomorrow

Jeremiah

Haitian worshiping

Our Serenading them with amazing grace..