Catch Up! (Not our choice)

We apologize for the hiatus that our blog was on for the last few days.  We had no choice in the matter - we were without internet.  We had wifi from Hope House but no Internet coming in.  But while we had no internet, we had a lot of electricity so we've realized we can't have it all in Haiti.

Reflecting back to Friday, we started the morning with the kindergarten classes during their morning opening.  This is always a highlight for the servant teams.  They were dressed in their gym uniforms and ready to play!  Following the school opening, we literally trekked out into the country for our first VBS of this trip.  Those riding in the van had to walk a quarter mile to the village church and leave the van behind because there was a stream that could be passed in the truck, not the van.  It would have bottomed out the van.  Those of us in the truck (Pat, Sarah, Sarah, and Dave) went for a rollercoaster ride as we forded the stream that had been filled in with branches to make a path for us.  Once again, VBS was a huge success.  We shared the Word of God through the story of the Good Samaritan, acting it out for the children and then having them act it out.  We shared crafts, as well as sports ministry with a parachute, soccer, and wiffle ball.  The highlight of the VBS was to see the kids act out the same story that we acted out.  The good news is that the kids were familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan.  We were joined by Pierre, Benson, Wesley, Cherie, and Jennifer who acted as our translators.  They are amazing!  We then returned to Hope House for a significant amount of work, continuing to assemble the cabinets and painting the dining room and kitchen.

Saturday we headed to Little Children of Jesus which is always an emotional visit with highs and lows.  It's never easy but always a blessing.  During this visit, we were able to not only experience time with the kids but we also helped with feeding the kids, cutting their nails, cleaning, mopping, changing sheets, and picking up trash on the grounds.  The culmination of our visit was a vigorous balloon volleyball game in the dining area.  Some of our team members tried their hand at making balloon animals.  The quality of our animals was not a key to having fun (sorry, Paul, we didn't live up to your standards).  Following our visit to LCJ, we headed back to Hope House for lunch and then went to the metal works village.  It's an adventurous visit with haggling with the artisans for artwork.  We always manage to leave with many treasures.  And yes, we returned back to Hope House to do more work on our cabinets and a second coat on the kitchen/dining room.  The night ended with a rousing game of Spoons played by Sarah F., Sarah M., Chris, Greer, Pat, and Dave.  Dave quickly got out of the game and after a few more rounds, Chris and Sarah F. tied as the winners.  Then we moved on to Uno.  We played 3 games - Dave won the first two and we didn't want to end on that note so we decided to play one more round.  Two hours later, Sarah F. was the victor.  We knew that we hadn't been playing with a full deck (so true on many levels) but didn't realize we were 28 cards short!  We have since remedied the situation!

Sunday we were able to experience the church that Rob and Trish go to in Port-au-Prince.  It's a Haitian church but the service is in English.  Many of us have enjoyed the services of Haitian churches in the past but this year we were able to participate more since it was in English.  As always, the singing was outstanding.  It's our Joy Service on steroids.  :)  Following church we the privilege to ride up the mountain and have lunch at the Observatorie restaurant which provides a panoramic view of Port-au-Prince.  Besides being at least 10 degrees cooler, the views at 3500 feet were magnificent.  The meals were pretty good but we were definitely on Haitian time.  No hurry... We were there at least three hours.  We were thankful for the fellowship during lunch but we are very aware that 99% of Haitians will never enjoy what we experienced.  We continue to pray for opportunity and prosperity for Haiti.  On our way back to Hope House we stopped at Giant Foods - not "our" Giant like in Northern Virginia.  We stocked up on coffee, vanilla, rum, and other goodies.  And yes, we returned to Hope House where some worked until 10 p.m. and others worked til midnight.  The goal was to have at least two cabinets completed so we could deliver them to the school on Monday.

TODAY!  We went for our second VBS this morning and it happened to be one that we went to last year.  The good news is that the fields we used last year for sports ministry are now fields of beans.  The bad news is that sports ministry did not take place.  We did manage to do the parachute game, play London Bridges, and Duck Duck Goose which for some of the team hadn't been played in 40 years.  We won't name names!  But again, we had the same wonderful experience this time as we did on Friday with a lot of enthusiasm, participation, and a lot of sharing.  Some of us even got to hold some babies!  Following VBS we returned to Village of Hope School where we enjoyed a lunch of beans and rice or rice and beans.  All the men in this group were extremely happy to have six strapping young men to carry the cabinets from the truck up to the school classrooms.  A huge disappointment is that no one except Sarah F. was able to meet with the students that are sponsored by members of our group.  She passed him on the walk up to the school and recognized him. Thanks to Pierre, they were able to chat for a few minutes.  We returned to Hope House with Richard, Dave, Greer, and Scott in the back of the truck, singing and playing instruments with our translators.  The rest of us were jealous we had stayed in the van!  When we got back to the compound, the rest of the doors were put on the cabinets.

As always, our team has been amazing this week.  We have gelled really well and had fun together along with doing excellent work.  We are all thankful for these experiences and can't wait to share our experiences with others.  We are especially grateful to Rob and Trish for their leadership and guidance.  They are truly amazing, humble servants.

For anyone following the blog, we encourage you to consider joining us on our servant trip in the future or joining another opportunity to serve.  You will get back more than you give!  "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"  Acts 20:35

 

Uno!

 

VBS this morning - Pat surrounded by friends

  

Kindergarten Opening on Friday

Hit the Wall!

Today was a full day of servant tasks primarily building cabinets for the teachers at Village of Hope School and painting the dining room and kitchen (a task unknown to us prior to arriving) at Hope House.  We split into teams with seven folks doing cabinets and five folks doing the painting.  As usual, the teams were fluid and many of us did several different tasks throughout the day.  We started the work day at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 5:30.  The plan is to complete seven cabinet assemblies.  We were able to accomplish building two full cabinets outfitted with shelves and have varnished both along with 3/4 of the shelves.  A few people are building the outer shells of the cabinets, some are making the centers, and others did the bases on which the cabinets sit.  We came up with a creative way to varnish the shelves for the cabinets by hanging them from the clothesline (the Haitians were perplexed by this and probably thinking, "what are these Americans doing?")

The painting crew completed the dining room - tearing it down, painting it a beautiful turquoise, and putting it back together.  As of the end of the day, the painting crew had primed and put the first coat of a bright yellow on the dining room.  We are always amazed at how much endurance and strength God gives us allowing us to get more done than we think we will.  And of course, Dave photographed every moment of the day.  He says he still has room for 7500 more pictures!

Following dinner, we made 125 peanut butter sandwiches for tomorrow's VBS and 250 goodie bags - 125 of which will be shared tomorrow at VBS with the remainder to be used on Monday.  Toro, the dog, really enjoyed cleaning out the peanut butter jars!

Our first stop tomorrow morning will be the Village of Hope School to see the kindergarten opening.  It's always a highlight of our trip.  And based on last year, we have high expectations for VBS tomorrow as well. Enjoy the pictures - more to come tomorrow!

"Where's My ______________?" -Dave Siebert

Our team for our 9th SJLC Servant Trip to Haiti includes Greer Putnam, Jim Lofgren, Sarah Finger, Sarah Meehan, Don Pape, Dave Siebert, Christine Payne, Scott Putnam, Chris Brody, Ken Lorang, Richard Finger, and Pat Eichhorst.  We are representing three different states - VA, NC, and MN, and six different churches.

We arrived safely in Haiti and Dave certainly made it interesting. He started at 5:00 this morning with "Where's my keys?" (he had given them to Greer but it took him 15 minutes to realize it despite several of us telling him).  That was followed by "where's my passport" and was found after ripping his suitcase apart.  He wasn't done.  We had to check our carry-ons in DC because there was no more overhead space and the bags were checked through to Port-au-Prince.  As we got ready to board in Miami, they asked for his passport and he realized it was in his checked bag.  Needless to say, that resulted in the airline having to find his bag that had already been loaded into the plane, to retrieve his passport.  We told them they could just keep Dave in Miami, but they got his bag immediately.  We know this blog isn't supposed to be just about Dave but he gave us some great material to work with!  The attached picture is his victorious boarding of the plane with passport in hand!

The logistic of the airport all went well and we only needed to bribe two people.  Luckily it only cost us $10 to get our 33 suitcases through without being checked by customs - being in Haiti is an adventure.  Traffic was light and we made it to Hope House in record time (40 minutes).

We spent the afternoon decompressing, unpacking suitcases, and enjoying our first Prestige!  We are impressed with all the improvements that have been made to Hope House since we were here a year ago.

One of the highlights of our trips to Haiti is our devotional time.  Pat wrote our devotions for this year and Dave has prepared our music.  Pat gets the rookie of the year award for taking on that big task on her first trip with us!

The plan for tomorrow is working here at Hope House on building cabinets for teacher storage at Village of Hope and painting the kitchen and dining room.  We are all thankful being in Haiti with the opportunity to serve others and glorify God's name.