The Last View of Haiti

Flying away in the Mission Flights International plane. This is the last we'll see of Haiti... for now.
We can't wait to see all of you back at home!

Saying Goodbye

There were mixed emotions on the last morning at EBAC. We were sad to to say goodbye, but ready to see our families and friends back home. Haitians talk about "the forgetting tree." They say that when visitors drive away - past the forgetting tree - they do not remember their experience and they forget the people they've met and the needs they've seen. The kids are afraid we will forget them. Each of us is responsible for ensuring that we do not let that happen.

To the Dress-Makers

The pillow case dresses are PERFECT for Haiti. They are light-weight and durable. The leaders at the orphanage were very excited about the gift. Thanks again to all who participated. We are excited to send more!

The Dining Hall and Kitchen

The team thought the EBAC dining hall, serving room, and kitchen would be a good way to illustrate the poverty in Haiti. Part of our team painted the dining room yellow. While they were painting, a few rats walked through the room and crawled into the holes in the cement. The kitchen - used for cooking in bulk - has no modern appliances.

Last Day in Haiti

It was another good day today.  After breakfast, the team split into two groups -- one group visited IDADEE again, and the other stayed at EBAC to paint the dining room.  It was a fun and productive day, and the groups reunited in the afternoon at EBAC to spend time with the kids and say their goodbyes.  For dinner, the cooks prepared a Haitian meal of rice, beans and chicken for everyone, and tonight the team will have their third and final movie night with the kids.  

Tomorrow morning the team begins the trip home and will board the MFI flight to Florida.  Please pray for a safe trip, good weather, and also for the team as they begin the transition back to life in the U.S.

Church Service

 

Even though we are hundreds of miles away we were joined with you in worship this morning. The service was long, but good. It was all in creole. This song is called "Lead Me, Jesus." We did find out that the sermon was about enduring suffering. Reading passages about suffering (like James 1, Philippians 1, and I Samuel 2) from a Haitian point of view sheds new light on the topic. It is humbling. At the end, we were invited to take communion with our Haitian family members in Christ. It was a very good morning.

Sunday School Small Groups

 

Before church this morning the children gathered to learn about the first three days of creation. Their lesson included a Bible memory verse, Bible reading, and teaching from curriculum. The girls were well behaved and the boys kept getting yelled at (typical). After Sunday School the kids gathered for songs and a Bible video in the Rec Room.

Do we have to leave?!?

I can't believe it is already Sunday morning and we only have a few days left here in Haiti. This trip has been simply amazing. Words can't describe the emotions we experience every day getting to know the Haitian people.

As you can tell from our videos from yesterday we had a lot of new experiences yesterday. We got to load our team on a bus and travel into Cap Haitian to shop at the tourist market and then enjoy a pool-side lunch at a beautiful Haitian hotel called the Mont Jolie. Our favorite part of this experience was that we got to bring a few of the kids from the EBAC orphanage. We were so excited to invite them and spend some time with them. However, we did not realize how significant it actually was for the kids. You see, most of them had NEVER even been to the town of Cap Haitian before. The town is only a few miles down the road and they had never even seen it before. Not only that, but we took them to lunch as well. I wished I had a picture to show you how big their eyes got when they saw the table prepared for them. We had no idea the impact it would have on them. The kids tried french fries, salad dressing and soda for the first time.

Although it was a great meal, the real highlight was getting the opportunity to jump in the pool and get clean! :) Again, many of the kids had never swam in a pool before. Awesome experience. Many laughs.

We ended the night last night by having dinner with Pastor Sabien. Pastor Sabien is truly a modern day saint if I have ever met one. He told us stories of how he started with twelve haitian dollars ($1.25 US) and gave it to God to bring hope to Haiti. As a result of Pastor Sabien's faith,  he has been a part of starting over 170 churches, a clinic, a university and some orphanages. It was such a reminder to us of how God can take something so small and insignificant and use it to do extraordinary things.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. Keep checking back for more updates!

Haitian Hotel, Part 2

At a premier Cap Haitian hotel, your lunch options include...

Haitian Hotel, Part 1

 

Today, our group drove to a local hotel for lunch - a short sight-seeing adventure. Plus, we got to take five of the EBAC kids with us.  It was the first time they swam in a swimming pool. The older kids, Guilin (seventeen) and Ricardo (sixteen), had only seen pools on television until today.  The hotel sat at the top of a hill right above some pretty severe poverty.

Plaground: the AFTER video

 

This is the playground after we've torn it apart. The group coming next week will bring new parts and repair it. It was a group effort - Americans and Haitians working together - which was really encouraging.

EBAC Children Singing

 

The kids wanted to sing for us. Some songs were in english, some in creole, some were mixed. This song's chorus: "For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain."

Lunch at IDADEE

 

Here are the eight 2-year-olds eating lunch at the new orphanage. They have to eat all of their food before they get a small animal cracker and drink. They were much better behaved than expected! The dog "cleans up" after them when they're finished... he's well fed.

Hello from Haiti!

 

Bernadette always makes great meals for the team! At breakfast this morning we decided to say hello to all of our families and friends back home. Thanks for your prayers.

Children at IDADEE

Here are some of the children at IDADEE playing with bubbles. They are adorable! But, eight 2-year-olds are quite a load of work for the newly married couple who serves there. This couple grew up at EBAC and now have a desire to serve other orphans. They pray that the Lord will give them energy, patience, and strength.

IDADEE: The New Orphanage

 

Here's a quick pan of the new orphanage. It is beautiful - even by American standards! The second floor is not yet built, but it already houses eight 2-year-olds.

Riding a Tap-Tap

 

One of the most common forms of transportation in Haiit: the tap-tap. Most tap-taps are pick-up trucks with railings on the back. This one is a bit more comfortable (it actually has cushions). Don't worry... we're all wearing our seat belts (ha!). We're driving from EBAC (the original orphanage) to IDADEE (the new orphanage).

More Kids at the Orphanage

Here's another group of kids (McKenzie made his way into this video as well). Some of these kids don't attend EBAC school, but they are at the orphanage every day. The names are tough to hear and even tougher to pronounce... with some kids, your guess is as good as ours. But, we do our best.

An Inside Look

Here's a look inside the EBAC school at the orphanage. Each student has an "office" (a partitioned desk) where they complete their work. There's also a large music room with benches and a piano. Right now, school is out for the summer.

Foreman Dave Working Hard

Dave takes his work very seriously, eh?

Tearing Down the Playground

This is part of our team working with EBAC kids and leaders. The playground is coming down.

Day 4 - Work and Play

It sounds like the team had another great day in Haiti.  They split into two groups today -- the one group finished work on the playground, and the other group visited IDADEE orphanage to watch the kids and give the people running it a much-needed break!  

Tonight is "movie night" at EBAC.  The team made popcorn and Kool-Aid drinks for the children, and they plan to watch Toy Story on a big screen.   Although the power has been out most of the day, the equipment will be hooked up to a generator to ensure that the entire movie plays without interruption.

Please continue to pray for the everyone, and watch for more video and blog updates throughout the week! 

Video Fixed

For some reason, the previous blog post contained the wrong video. It is now fixed. Sorry.

Plaground: the BEFORE video (NEW VIDEO)

Not sure why the other video uploaded when this post first appeared. Sorry for the mistake.

This is what the playground looked like when we got here. Our job: dismantle broken pieces (with fairly limited tools) so that the group coming next week can put on new pieces. AFTER pics coming soon.

Our first full day in Haiti!

We had a wonderful day today in beautiful Haiti!

We started our day with breakfast and then doing some work around the EBAC Orphanage. Some of us played card games with kids or did some coloring. Liz had a nice crew of kids together "teaching" them how to make bracelets. Although, I think many of them just hoped she would do the work for them.

Another group of us started some DEMO on the existing playground. One of our biggest tasks is trying to prep the playground so new parts can be attached next week when another team comes in. Foreman David had us all digging and breaking up concrete and dismantling the broken slide. It didn't take long for all the kids to join in and want to "help".

After lunch we piled up onto a truck and went to visit the newly opened IDADEE Orphanage down the road. It was absolutely AMAZING. God is clearly at work in the lives of all those involved in the IDADEE project. The land and building are beautiful. They also have 9 new kids and 1 baby. We spent some time touring the place and playing with some bubbles with the kids.

The night ended with a friendly game of soccer, basketball and some much needed dinner. Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for energy for our team. Keep checking back for pictures and videos!

Sleeping Conditions for EBAC boys

Here's a room in the boys' dorm.

Three Kids On Site

This is Woody, Wilgins, and McKenzie.

The Orphanage

This is the EBAC orphanage playground, dorms, school, rec center, and missionaries' (Alice and Kathy) home.

Day 2 - Safely in Haiti

Well, the team made it safely to Haiti -- praise God!  They arrived at MFI early this morning and flew out on a DC-3 toward Cap Haitien.  The flight was long, but smooth and relatively uneventful.  They arrived around noon to the airport (in somewhat rainy conditions) and boarded a school bus to EBAC orphanage.  They were unloaded and unpacked by mid-afternoon, and then spent the rest of the day building relationships with the children and playing soccer, basketball, and marbles (marbles are especially popular among the kids in Haiti).  The kids were thrilled to see everyone and immediately started forming friendships.  As evening arrived and everyone settled in, the team ate dinner with Alice Wise and Kathy Gouker, the missionaries that oversee EBAC orphanage.  Alice and Kathy have been living and working at EBAC since 1978, living out God's calling on their lives.

As the team settles in and prepares for a full work day tomorrow, please pray for them.  The transition from our world in the United States to Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is often shocking and difficult to process.  Please pray for everyone's adjustment and health -- spiritual, emotional, and physical -- as they prepare to do God's work in Haiti.

(When possible, Rob will call me with updates on the day's activities and prayer requests.  In turn, I will do my best to update this blog each evening after I hear from him.  Take care, and until next time...!  -- Liz Gage)

Day 1... in the books!

Well, it was a long travel day... but we made it safe here to Florida.

The flight was as good as expected. When we landed in Florida, we headed over to Downtown Disney to enjoy an eventful lunch at the one and only Rainforest Cafe. After lunch our shuttle took us through a traffic jam of epic proportions. But Kevin didn't seem to mind, because it gave him some time to do homework! After a last minute stop at Walmart and dinner, we are all now anxiously awaiting our 6:00 a.m. flight to Cap Haitian tomorrow.

Please be praying for a safe and easy flight tomorrow and kindness in the hearts of the customs officials in Haiti. It's not always the easiest task bringing supplies into a country with an often corruptible legal system. We hope to update as often as we can! Thank you for you prayers and support.

Welcome!

We are so excited about what God will be doing through the lives of the 15 people going to Haiti May 30th-June8th.

Our group will be traveling to Cap-Haitian, Haiti. Cap-Haitian is the second largest city in Haiti and is located on the northern side of the country. There, we will be staying at the EBAC Orphanage.

It is our hope that we will be able to use this website to update our family and friends on the trip's progress and what our day looked like. That way, you will know what we are up to and what to be praying for. I will be calling my wife, Liz, with updates to add to this page and I will periodically try to upload some pictures.

As you know, both power and internet access are sparse in Haiti, we will do our best to get this blog updated. However, don't be concerned if we are unable to update everyday. Keep us in your prayers!

Peace.